A protester disrupted Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP as he gave evidence at a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into proposed laws that would make it easier for transgender people to record a sex change on legal documents. Source: ABC News.
Archbishop Fisher was less than a minute into his evidence before the lower house committee yesterday when he was interrupted mid-sentence.
Archbishop Fisher began to say, “There is a troubling anti-religious undercurrent,” when Pride in Protest activist Quay-Quay Quade stood up and yelled, “that’s a load of f****** bull****.”
The live stream of the hearing was cut, and Ms Quade was removed from the room.
The committee is examining Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023, which seeks to change 20 acts of Parliament.
One of the most contentious reforms is an amendment to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995.
It would remove the existing requirement for people to have undergone a sex affirmation procedure before registering a sex change.
NSW is the only Australian state or territory that still imposes this requirement.
Under the Equality Bill, a person aged 16 or older may apply to change their legal sex by making a statutory declaration that they identify as being of a particular sex.
Sex descriptors other than male and female include agender, genderqueer and non-binary.
The applicant must also provide a supporting statement from an adult who has known them for at least 12 months.
After the hearing resumed, Archbishop Fisher said self-identification of sex on legal documents would put women-only spaces at risk and make it “near-impossible” to retain religious customs.
Examples he gave were single-sex prayer, opposite-sex weddings, male-only ordainments, and single-sex schooling.
“It’s one thing to disagree with world religions on such matters, but quite another to deny them the right to practice their faith by making official documents deceptive regarding a person’s biological or birth sex,” he said.
The committee is due to report on the bill in June.
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Protester interrupts Archbishop of Sydney during parliamentary inquiry into transgender legislation (By Alexander Lewis, ABC News)
