10 Years Jail Time For Suppression Of LGBITQ+

Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, Health Minister, Martin Foley and Victorian COVID-19 Testing Commander, Jeroen Weimar arrive at the daily press conference on July 27, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The Victorian state government in Australia has made suppression of an LGBITQ+ individual a jailable offence in the state, after passing into law the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 on Feb.17.

The new law(pdf),  means that anyone who attempts to convert or suppress the sexual orientation or gender identity of Victorian LGBTIQ+ members can face up to 10 years in jail for a serious injury.

The law applies if the action took place in Victoria or if the subjector or the person being subjected are Victorian.

Additionally, in the statement released Feb. 17, the Labor government stated that any Victorian who advertises change or suppression practices can face a maximum fine of almost $10,000.

Taking a Victorian LGBITQ+ person to such practices in Victoria or anywhere in Australia can also result in a maximum penalty of two years in jail.

The bill has only been passed in Victoria and passed the state parliament on Feb. 4, 2021 and was set to commence a year later on Feb. 17, 2022.

The minister for health and equality, Martin Foley said that “insidious practices that have been allowed to ruin lives under the guise that LGBTIQ+ people are ‘broken and needed to be ‘fixed’” stops from Feb. 17.

The Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said that “these laws send the clear message that these disgraceful practices are not tolerated in Victoria. We’ll always have the LGBTIQ+ community’s back—now the law does too.”

The bill comes following the shelving of the religious discrimination bill that if passed, allowed people of faith and non-faith to make statements of belief out of goodwill.

According to the Victorian Government website, 5.7 percent of Victorians are identified as LGBTIQ+, whilst statistics by Profile Id from 2016 show that around 47.9 percent of Victorians are Christians, with 10.6 percent of people that are religious but non-Christian and 31.9 percent who nominated no religion.

However, despite the significant proportions of Victorians who identify as people of faith, in 2021 the government amended the Equal Opportunities Act (pdf), limiting religious schools to being only allowed to the preference for employees for roles where adherence to religious principles is inherent for the role.

Additionally, the preference is only restricted to employees’ religious beliefs and activity, but cannot be discriminated against based on the person’s sexual orientation, sexual activity, gender identity and marital status, which are all holistic for many people of the Christian faith.

The religious discrimination bill originally sought to overrule these amendments; allowing religious schools and organisations to have a preference in hiring staff that identified with the ethos of the school. The bill, however, will not apply to aged care homes and places that primarily provide care and hospitality.

The religious bill passed the lower house of the federal parliament on Feb. 10 after the Coalition agreed to amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), which will prevent religious schools from excluding gay and lesbian students but has since been withdrawn indefinitely after both Labor and the government voted to remove the legislation from the Senate’s agenda on Feb. 10.

Following the shelving of the religious discrimination bill, the Victorian Labor Government promised a $200,000 package for local organisations that provide support to the LGBTIQ+ community, with Victorian Premier Dan Andrews tying the funding to the recent religious discrimination bill, for which he said: “the Commonwealth government ought to be ashamed.”

The Australian Christian Lobby has announced its withdrawal of support for the discrimination bill on Feb. 10, following the amendment to the sex discrimination act, saying the proposed legislation was intended to help faith-based schools, but now they “do more harm than good.”

“The loss of this protection [for religious schools] would outweigh any benefits that could be obtained by the religious discrimination bill.”

However, with the new legislation taking effect for Victorians days after the shelving, this may completely change the circumstances for religious schools in Victoria.

Currently the exemptions of the SDA allow religious schools to discriminate sexual orientation and gender identities as long as it is in accords to the doctrines the school teaches, however the new law may limit the scope of teachings that religious schools can offer.