Gillard makes deal with Christian Lobby again

The Prime Minister has assured conservative faith-based institutions that they’ll still be able to turn away gays and lesbians under proposed new anti-discrimination laws.

Under current law, government funded religious schools and hospitals have the privilege to turn away teachers and students from their institutions for not sharing their beliefs.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Julia Gillard and her Labor Party cohorts met up with the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Jim Wallace.

“She has no intention of restricting freedom of religion,” says Wallace in regards to the legal rights of religious groups when hiring and firing.

The PM previously promised Wallace she would protect the institution of marriage as being between a man and a woman, as discovered in a filmed interview prior to her election in 2010.

The NSW Government has made a submission to the Human Rights and Anti-discrimination Bill 2012that proposes that the current law remain intact, continuing to provide a religious exemption for institutions who wish to dismiss staff and students who don’t stand on the same moral ground.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has announced that he will write to the PM “seeking her justification for allowing publicly funded religious providers free-range to discriminate against groups including gay and lesbian Australians.”

“The Prime Minister has a duty to protect those affected by discrimination, not those practising it,” he says.

“By allowing hospitals and schools to practice discrimination, the Prime Minister is supporting breeding grounds for homophobia.”

Greenwich will also request that Gillard meet with any who are suffering “as a result of the discriminatory practices of tax-payer funded religious service providers.”

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon released the draft bill late last year and received more than 3,000 submissions in response. The bill will mesh together five separate pieces of legislation into a single Act, aiming to strengthen protections for sexual orientation and gender diversity under federal law.

Openly-gay federal Finance Minister Penny Wong will push the bill through parliament. Once the bill is passed, older LGBTI and gender diverse people will no longer be discriminated against and refused refuge in aged care homes based on their sexuality and gender orientation.

Jim Wallace has made the Australian Christian Lobby’s view clear, but a wide range of other religious denominations have not yet stated their position.

 

Originally posted at SameSame on 16/01/2013

Those hateful homophobes

Honestly, are there any other words to describe a homophobe?
Yes, there are. But we’ll refrain from using foul language here for fear of which lovely kids may be reading this….

Now let me tell you something ‘revolutionary’:

I’m honestly not too impressed that within todays modern society so many homophobes are still living out there in hatred. What they say isn’t right, even if they claim it’s word from the Lord Almighty.
I’m no religious man,  and that’s why I feel I can safely say, they’re talking bullcrap.

Anyone who reads the Bible or any religious text would [and should] comprehend that such texts are full of messages of love and compassion. Whoever looks past that’s an idiot. And it seems that every conservative religious person I’ve seen in the media’s seriously daft.

You’re reading way into those sentences where it mentions “A man shall not lie with another man. God hates that”…. because he clearly doesn’t say, ‘don’t allow homosexuals to marry’ or ‘condemn all homosexuals to hell’….
So people, what’re you all complaining about? Why on earth would such nut-job groups as the Westboro Baptist Church despise homosexual people when they themselves are just trying to live a life of love, fairness and compassion.

Equality, people, is the message that all those holy texts are trying to get across.
And if you’re not getting the message, have another look.

Perhaps you’re not such a noob after all.

Here‘s the reason for my rant.

It certainly fueled my fire. ;]

Coming out should be a deadly sin.

And before you misunderstand what I wish to say… have a bit of a read. :}
Please. ;]

Oh yeah, and if you’re homophobic… this song‘s about you.

I mean that it should be a sin… and that it’s a horrible thing and shouldn’t exist, simply because I feel people shouldn’t have to come out. Why can’t the people in this world, look towards each other with feelings of admiration, respect and down to earth love? Why so much hate and disrespect that a simple thing such as sexuality (that shouldn’t really be a public issue) becomes a ridiculous problem and people feel as if they have to hide it?

People come in all shapes, sizes, colours, races, speak different languages and have different sexual orientations… it’s what makes human-kind such a beautiful and complex thing. It’s what makes the world truly interesting…. and the evolution of humanity has a long way to go… that I can say. If we were all to be truly human, there wouldn’t be so much hatred in the world. Sure, people would say that man’s basic instinct is survival, and I agree wholeheartedly. But how on earth do you expect particular groups who are discriminated against to survive? How do you think someone would feel if they were being called anything but ‘human’. Words hurt people. They dig incredibly deep, and are horribly difficult to take back.

Time to get out the tissues…

Dear World,

Listen Up!

aNoteToMyKid.com is perhaps the sweetest and most care-filled way that a parent can explain to their child/dren how much they love them despite their ‘differences’ from the rest of the kids in the neighbourhood. Aimed at providing a little hope and love between families with “LGBT and questioning youth, or any parent for that matter, with a platform for expressing unconditional love.”

I came across the link by stalking someone else’s blog on here and got all teary just reading two extracts from the website’s page. This is something I know my very own mother would have done. :]
For life without love is no life at all.

It also parallels the It Gets Better Project which “was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach — if they can just get through their teen years.”

Both links are well worth visiting, in support of LGBT youth worldwide. I hope you have the time to check them out. :]

To see my surprisingly ever so popular LGBT themed blog post about Glee and Grey’s Anatomy, click here. :]
And don’t forget to lend a hand to my dear friends at twenty10 by clicking the banner in my right-hand side bar.

With love and peace.
Ryan :]

game, set, match. :]

BOOMPOW. TV has a punch these days.

Once again, I feel as if I’m delaying those dreaded posts on the Deutschland Tour. For which I guess I am. I still have yet to select my favourite photo’s from the reel of 1,000 or so images I took with my handy little camera (must rethank Aunty Kara for that).

But there’s been so many odd little things happening to me recently that I worry I’ll forget their significance if I don’t write it all down. So one thing strange is that my two favourite TV shows (both amazing and incredibly different) Glee and Grey’s Anatomy have raised issues of Homophobia. And they’ve done it in such unexpected ways, that it was truly a kick-ass classy act. It certainly parallels with the status of the NOH8 campaign.

Grey’s features a lesbian wedding and Glee features a queen (in the derogatory sense) being coronated as Prom Queen as a sick prank. Both events have seriously hit home and I wish to let everyone know I wish to be fighting for justice on my return to Oz. I think it’s totally and utterly unacceptable that there be such hatred existing in the world.