Equality Without Exceptions: Community response to Alex Greenwich’s Equality bills
Our community’s rights have come to a crossroads. There is growing visibility with more people coming out than ever; momentum for trans rights has led to successful birth certificate reform in most states. There is also a culture war that has seen the religious right fearmonger against us in the parliament, in the media, and on the streets. This homophobic movement seeks to drive us out of work, healthcare, and education.
The Equality bills tabled by Alex Greenwich, independent MP for Sydney, represent an opportunity for much-needed change. The fight for birth certificate reform, banning conversion therapy, and ending coercive surgeries on intersex children is just one that we are committed to. We hope to rally on the streets in support of this bill.
We are concerned, however, that there are noticeable absences in the bill compared to the commitments offered in the lead-up to the election.
Namely, we are concerned that this bill will not address the urgent issue of ending religious exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that entrench our insecurity at work and school. Moreover, it may fail to address the promise of fully decriminalising sex work and adding sex work as a protected category in the Anti-Discrimination Act.
These are all key concerns that were also emphasised in the submissions by ACON, PIAC, and Amnesty International to the Equality Bill consultation process, and failing to address these concerns would be leaving our community behind. These issues seemingly are deferred to reviews headed by the Minns minority government to be quietly dealt with at some other time with no guarantee that they would not be sidelined.
We believe that equality should never come with exceptions.
The Equality bills need to be something our community can clearly and proudly rally behind as we fight for meaningful change, not a set of compromises. This is undeniably important given that the Minns minority government has now committed to religious vilification laws and flagged support for religious carve-outs that would deeply undermine ending conversion therapy.
We are calling for a united campaign around the upcoming bills in NSW Parliament. This means voting down the Religious Vilification Amendment in full, and putting an Equality Bill that addresses the following demands:
- Reform of the Births, Deaths & Marriages Act 1995 to allow for gender self-identification without surgery, recognising non-binary identities, and recognising rainbow families.
- Removing exceptions in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1997 (NSW) that allow for discrimination by faith-based organisations, private schools, superannuation funds, and sporting organisations.
- Integrating sex work, and sex worker history, as a protected attribute in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1997 (NSW) and removing sex work entirely from the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW).
- A Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill that does not permit religious exemptions.
- An end to coercive surgeries on intersex children, and genetic discrimination as a protected attribute in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1997 (NSW).
