Submission to Marriage Amendment (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill

This document is a submission made in 2017 by the APS to the Commonwealth Government’s exposure draft of the Marriage Amendment (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill.

The APS welcomes the Marriage Amendment (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill as an important step towards achieving marriage equality and eliminating discrimination towards LGBTI communities within Australian society.

The APS position is based on the most current available evidence of the likely harm to the mental health and wellbeing of lesbian and gay, as well as of transgender and intersex Australians who are not free to marry the partner of their choice.

The APS is concerned that the proposed draft Bill contains exemptions that go beyond religious freedom for ministers of religion to being based on personal conscience, which may or may not relate to religion, and therefore may still enable discrimination to occur, and in fact would enshrine that discrimination as legal. The APS recommends that the Government focus attention on interventions aimed at protecting those most vulnerable from the harm such discrimination can cause.

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