Rally against religious “right” to discriminate this Saturday in Sydney
Image: (PHOTO: David Alexander; Star Observer)
Come to Taylor Square at 1pm this Saturday to protest anti-discrimination exemptions that allow organisations owned by religious groups to fire staff and expel students on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.
Organisers are expecting a sunny day for the event, which they hope will see Sydney-siders turn out in their thousands to protest the Australian Government’s plans for so-called “religious freedom” legislation before the event finishes at 2.30pm.
The Government initially planned to pass its Religious Discrimination bills in July but pushback from LGBTQI rights advocates have seen that dragged out further.
Neither the Opposition nor advocates have seen the bills. However some Labor politicians including Chris Bowen have given their qualified support for the Parliament legislating this issue.
A YouGov Galaxy Poll from October of last year found that around 80% of people oppose the right of religious schools to expel LGBTQI students or sack LGBTQI teachers.
That is a larger majority than the 61.6% of Australians who voted for marriage equality in the 2017 postal plebiscite.
“All this is nothing more than a bitter and vicious conservative minority attempting to roll back progress after our community’s smashing victory for equality in 2017,” rally organisers Community Action Against Homophobia said ahead of the event.
“Discrimination cannot be tolerated under the guise of religious belief or any other basis. Join the protest on Saturday August 3 to tell parliament and the bigoted minority there is no right to discriminate!”
You can find the Facebook page for the event here
