Equality charity fights 'discriminatory' conscience clause

Monday 22 January 2018

Equality and Diversity charity, Liberate, is opposing moves which would enable businesses to refuse to take part in a same-sex marriage, or a marriage involving a transgender person, on the grounds of religion.

The proposed new Marriage Law, which is due to be debated on 30 January, included a clause permitting religious organisations and officials to refuse to take part in same-sex or transgender marriages - but then the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel decided to take it further, giving businesses the right to say "no" too.

Liberate have now launched a petition against the Scrutiny Panel's 'conscience clause' - started three days ago, it has already been signed by nearly 2,000 people.

Vic Tanner Davy, CEO Liberate, explained that the amendment to the Draft Marriage Law and Discrimination Law "...fundamentally alters underlying principles of discrimination legislation that are accepted the world over."

He added: “We made it clear in our submission to the Scrutiny Panel that we are opposed to any enshrinement into law of a clause that sets one group or individual against another. We do not believe that there is a desire for this clause from wedding suppliers and we do not believe that the amendment as drafted will address the perceived problem the Scrutiny Panel are seeking to address. The outcome of invoking such a clause to justify discrimination would be unhappy for all concerned.

“This amendment has not been publicly consulted on and our instinct is that if it were to be it would not receive public support. This is why we have launched a petition to gauge public reaction.”

Pictured: Equality charity Liberate says the Scrutiny Panel have fallen into the trap of "conflation of religious belief with being anti-same sex marriage."

Islanders who wish to sign the petition can visit Liberate's website. On a page dedicated to the issue, the charity wrote: "Throughout this debate there has been a conflation of religious belief with being anti-same sex marriage. The Scrutiny Panel has also fallen into this trap in the provisions made by their amendment.

"Having a religious conviction does not mean that you will be anti-same sex marriage, just as being part of the LGBT+ community does not mean that you will be pro-same sex marriage. There are a multiplicity of views, and reasons behind those views, across society. All one can safely say is that there are those who are for same sex marriage and those who are not – whether their reason is based on a religious belief or not."

Earlier this month, the subject of the ' conscience clause' came up during a Scrutiny Panel hearing. Senator Andrew Green explained that such a clause hadn't been included in the Marriage Law saying decision saying it would "encourages and allow for more discrimination.”

The Chief Minister added: “Finding a remedy in the law is difficult.  (…) We don’t want to criminalise people who object on religious grounds,” but “protection for religious beliefs and not promoting discrimination is really difficult. I can’t see anywhere currently who have got that proportion right. (...) How do we present a legislation that’s not discriminatory but also human right compliant?”