Archive for blasphemy law
freedom to discriminate???
Posted in Statistics with tags Australia, blasphemy law, democracy index, discrimination, LGBT rights, Manif pour tous, religious freedom on November 18, 2018 by xi'an“Gay students and teachers could be rejected by religious schools under changes to anti-discrimination laws being recommended by a federal review into religious freedom.” The Guardian, 9 Oct. 2018
The quote is not speaking of one of the 72 countries in the World where homosexuality is considered a crime (with 13 states applying the death penalty), but of Australia, ranked 8th on the Economist 2017 Democracy Index, where religious freedom arguments are legally recognised as a right to discriminate against homosexual students and staff. (As an aside, Australia still has a blasphemy law.)
“While the panel accepted the right of religious school to discriminate against students on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, it could see no justification for a school to discriminate on the basis of race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 Oct. 2018
I find it flabbergasting that such newspeak inversions (also found in the French “Manif pour tous” slogans turning égalité into a discrimination argument against homosexual weddings and adoptions) can find their way into a legislative text. And more generally that religions can still continue to promote gender discrimination with no consequences.