Imagine you’re in the supermarket, you’ve got a trolley full of groceries and you head to the checkout. As you unload your purchases on to the conveyor the attendant stops you and asks you and your partner a question. “Are you a gay couple?”
After you confirm that you are, the attendant breaks the news to you that his religious beliefs prevent him from serving groceries to gay people. He recommends you put your choices back in the trolley and head down to check out seven, the attendant on that register accepts gay people.
You start to unload at checkout seven, but the attendant looks at you with disdain. She leans over and tells you that while she will serve gay people because she doesn’t believe that the bible specifically rules out gay people- that bit about eating fish on a Friday though is a deal breaker.
It’s a Friday and you’ve got some beef stakes in your trolley and the attendant at checkout seven doesn’t know if you can be trusted to not eat the beef until tomorrow. She recommends you roll the trolley over towards checkout two.
Sadly the attendant at checkout has a sign saying she doesn’t serve those who have been divorced. Too bad your partner married a woman in twenties before coming out five years later. You leave your groceries behind.
It seems like a ridiculous scenario – but isn’t that what opponents to marriage equality as suggesting when they argue that religious views should over rule anti-discrimination laws?
While nobody calling for marriage equality is suggesting that religious bodies would be compelled to marry a gay couple (unless they wanted to), Churches have begun to argue for the right to discrimination in any part of society based on religious views, particularly in jobs and the provision of services.
Not too long ago a WA politician suggested that if gay people didn’t want to be discriminated in aged care services, where many are run by religious organisations, we should build our own retirement homes. Will we have to build our own supermarkets, cake stores and wedding venues too?
Are there really butchers, bakers and candlestick makers who are going to be grasping their rosary beads at the thought of selling a cake to a happy gay couple? And do we really as a society think for even a single second that that would ever be acceptable?
Graeme Watson
OUTinPerth welcomes opinion pieces on topics relevant to the LGBTI community. If you’ve got something to share email editor@outinperth.com
Actually, I went to Woolworth’s Perth on St George’s Terrace and there was a man from Pakistan employee on the self-serve who was really offensive to me. They talk about the Christians, but a real issue is that people from bigotted Islamic countries are coming here and they are turning the clock back on us. The corporate interests who want labour from wherever don’t brief these people on ethical standards towards gay people.