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You’ll be forgiven if you didn’t catch up with the news during the week that a new bill made its way through the Australian Parliament and is set to become law.
It’s the “Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill 2013”. It is quite historic as it covers gay, lesbian, transgender and intersex discrimination. That’s really very powerful.
The new law has a raft of exemptions, most notably and with no surprise, for religious bodies to discriminate against the gays. With one exception. Religious bodies who run aged-care facilities may not discriminate against the homosexuals.
This has the ACL spitting grey furballs against the bingo board in their aged-care facilities across the nation.
Oh, they don’t actually run any. That’s right, they only lobby for silly things.
“it removes religious exemptions for Commonwealth aged-care providers to preference a married couple over an unmarried couple or a heterosexual over a homosexual resident.
Some aged care facilities run by faith organisations treasure their ethos and want to be free to preserve this.”
Yes, that’s right, a couple who have lived together for 40 years and aren’t married should be locked out to keep your quaint ethos. No doubt that old couple of lesbians will go on a rampage making all the old girls quiver in places that long ago stopped quivering. Heaven forbid that the gay guys might actually manage to get some of the old husbands up again. And lordy me, how will we deal with the 80 year olds that have just shacked up together?
However, the ACL questions why this legislation was pursued when no examples of actual discrimination have actually been put forward. ACL understands it’s the practice of many faith-based aged-care providers to help and look after elderly people regardless of their sexuality
Excellent, there are no actual examples, so there is no problem in enshrining it in law. Even better that ‘many’ homes are already looking after the elderly gay people, I rather suspect though, that is those outside the ‘many’ that need to be inclusive.
It was nothing but a stalking horse to pursue this legislation and instead sets up a precedent for other religious exemptions to be challenged in the future.
Oh, that’s it, you’re worried that when the world doesn’t actually collapse from this huge infringement on your rights to be a bigot that the government might remove other exemptions!
If Commonwealth-funded faith-based aged care providers lose the right to positively select clients in accordance with the principles of their faith, will other faith-based organisations similarly lose their religious freedom? Will Christian schools, for example, continue to be able to hire staff who adhere to the values of the organisation?
What does positively select clients mean? This is a silly statement. Nobody is telling old folks home that they can’t continue to select religious people for their homes, they’re saying more to the point that you can’t exclude someone just because you don’t like their martial status or their sexual orientation or gender identity. And same thing for your religious schools, of course they can continue to hire nutters from the same faith. The day is coming when those institutions won’t be allowed to discriminate against anyone. Bring it on.
Mr ACL – your religious freedoms are not impinged by employing those who are different to your faith. Unless you’re suggesting that in fact that notion that you hate the sin and not the sinner is actually incorrect.
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