Hundreds Rally At Sydney Town Hall To ‘Kill The Bill’

Hundreds of people rallied in the rain at Sydney’s Town Hall against the Religious Discrimination Bill on Saturday afternoon.

Organised by the Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), speakers included NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, Sydney Girls High year 10 student Sumaya, and CARR’s co-convenor April Holcombe.

Bill Shelved, But Not Dead

Sumaya, who identified as a queer Muslim, rallied the crowd with a passionate call to action, saying, “the Bill means that queer people across all areas of public life must live in fear. At the very best, we hide who we are. At the very worst, we lose everything.”

“It hurts queer students in religious schools, it hurts queer teachers, it hurts queer workers, it hurts us!” said Sumaya.

Holcombe spoke of the continuing threat of the Bill, which was indefinitely shelved by the government on Thursday. 

“It might have been shelved this week, but it is not dead. We are here today to make sure that this bill is killed and never comes back,” she said.

Greens MP: We will Never Step Back from this Fight

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Greens “will always vote with the LGBTI community, every single time, 100 percent.”

“To every one of you today, to those students who are there thinking, ‘am I going to be abandoned, am I going to be maligned,’ to those teachers who are wondering will they get the sack, to all of you, we are in this together. We will never step back from this fight and we will not only kill the Bill, we will change politics and ensure something like that never darkens a Parliament like that again.”

As rain continued to fall, the protesters marched along George Street towards Queen’s Square, umbrellas and placards in hand, chanting, “We’re fabulous! Don’t fuck with us.”

Queer activist group Pride In Protest said on Facebook, “We still need to force the Liberals, Nationals, and Labor to change their policy and not support the bill. We have to put Scomo (Prime Minister Scott Morrison) on notice, and we need to tell Albanese (Leader of the Opposition,  Anthony Albanese) not to support him!”

The next protest against the Religious Freedom Bill will be held on March 5 at Taylor Square.