Commercial surrogacy, gender self-identification on birth certificates, and the safety of women-only spaces were at the forefront of a roundtable discussion of interfaith leaders and NSW state Liberal MLC Susan Carter. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Little more than a month after the passage of the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2024 in the New South Wales Parliament, Ms Carter urged the group to press politicians on both sides to ameliorate the effect of the reform’s implementation on families, women and girls.
The Shadow Assistant Attorney-General met with the group comprising several western Sydney faith and education leaders from Catholic, Anglican and Sikh communities in the discussion at Mary Immaculate Parish in Bossley Park on November 22.
Ms Carter told them that although commercial surrogacy will remain a crime in the state, the new act – because it allows for people to apply for a parentage order for children born overseas via international surrogacy – would nevertheless facilitate a form of modern-day slavery and sex trafficking.
During debate on the bill, which the Coalition opposed, Ms Carter said Government MPs had acknowledged risks remained for overseas surrogates engaged by Australians.
She also shared concerns that making it easier to change one’s sex on a birth certificate, existing protections for women’s sport and women’s-only spaces would be eroded.
“The strongest opposition to this legislation were fathers who have daughters; they want spaces protected where their daughters can flourish,” she said.
Fr Peter James Strohmayer OSPPE, parish priest of St Gertrude’s parish, Smithfield, said he was concerned the law, in allowing for easier self-sex identification on legal documents, has potential for conflict with requirements for marriage and ordination in the Church and on the operation of single-sex schools.
“In a sense this is an attack on religious freedom, how as a Church we can operate independently from state and retain our religious identity,” he said.
The proposed bill was strongly opposed by faith and education leaders including Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP and the wider community.
Just over 85 per cent of the more than 13,000 people who responded to a public survey on the proposed “equality” reforms did not support it.
FULL STORY
Faith leaders raise concern over Equality Bill (By Marilyn Rodrigues, The Catholic Weekly)
