Australian same-sex law should see exodus from marriage act, by Jennifer Oriel.
Same-sex marriage does not constitute an inherent attack on religious freedom. However, the Liberal Party’s draft same-sex marriage bill could empower a state-funded assault on religions across the nation. …
Unless the Coalition presents a modified bill that properly protects core freedoms, marriage reform will produce an entrenched conflict between queer ideology and liberty. …
International precedent demonstrates that the legalisation of same-sex marriage can change the nature of marriage itself from a natural institution with social ends to an activist institution with political ends. It can herald a profound transformation of society by making the most pre-political institution a servant of the PC state.
Wherever the state has codified neo-Marxist minority politics in discrimination law, the institution of marriage is gradually subordinated to the dictates of political correctness. In the context of codified neo-Marxism, the legalisation of same-sex marriage is not what it seems. Instead of creating equality, it can create inequality by empowering the persecution of dissenters from PC politics.
In the Western world, dozens of cases have been brought against private enterprises, religious organisations or individuals by same-sex marriage activists. Some are reasonable in a secular society. Others are anti-religious bigotry masquerading as equality. In the UK, for example, the Equality Commission funded activist Gareth Lee’s case against a Northern Irish baker who wouldn’t write the political slogan “support gay marriage” on a cake. In my view, that is state-funded prosecution of a political dissident.
The legalisation of same-sex marriage can give PC activists a new, taxpayer-funded power to prosecute those who disagree with them. …
Yet many Yes campaigners deny the threat that marriage reform poses to freedom of speech and religion. …
Earlier this year, Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus foreshadowed the extension of PC censorship under notorious 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to sexual orientation.
Activists have attacked numerous individuals to censor free speech that dissents from the PC line on same-sex marriage. Last year, church leaders were prevented from meeting at the Mercure Hotel in Sydney after queer activists threatened hotel staff. In December, a man drove a van into the Australian Christian Lobby office. It has come to light that the accused, Jaden Duong, allegedly told police he disliked the ACL because of its “position on sexuality”. …
There is little protection for traditional marriage supporters in the draft bill. The religious protections are limited to ministers or religious marriage celebrants and bodies that can prove their stance on marriage conforms to anti-discrimination law. The lack of protections leaves dissenters from LGBTQI marriage vulnerable to hate speech, harassment, boycotts and lawfare. …
The Presbyterian church has resolved to withdraw from the Marriage Act if forced by legislation to conduct same-sex marriage. The proposal reflects realism. The current Marriage Act is secular, consistent with our secular state. It does not represent the view that marriage is the sanctified union of a man and woman under God. The withdrawal of religions from the Marriage Act would strengthen the vital distinction between state authority and church authority.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
