Gay voices raised for religious protections in same-sex bill

Ben Rogers and Mark Poidevin have called for religious protections in a bill to legalise same-sex marriage.

Mark Poidevin and Ben Rogers at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Picture Kym Smith

Gay couple Ben Rogers and Mark Poidevin have urged Malcolm Turnbull to honour his promise to include religious protections in a bill to legalise same-sex marriage or risk people of faith being hauled before the courts.

Mr Rogers and Mr Poidevin — both of whom oppose same-sex marriage — visited MPs in Canberra yesterday to discuss the need for extra safeguards.

Mr Poidevin, a Catholic, said it was imperative to ensure the introduction of same-sex marriage was a unifying moment instead of a contentious social change.

“We’re trying to create equality but we’re actually making an inequality for other people,” he said. “By not having religious protections you are creating something for one group of people and another group is suffering.

“We’ve got to come up with a bill that caters to both sides.”

The pair, who went public with their opposition to same-sex marriage during the government’s postal survey, spoke yesterday with conservative MPs Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews, George Christensen, Eric Abetz, Andrew Hastie and Ian Goodenough.

“The wider Australian community has overwhelmingly voted Yes to acceptance and equality so I think the least that the LGBTI community could do is to return that by including religious freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience,” Mr Rogers said.

The push to have further protections included in the same-sex marriage bill was opposed by key figures in the Equality group which campaigned for the Yes vote.

Equality co-chair Alex Greenwich said the gay marriage bill championed by West Australian Liberal Dean Smith needed to be passed by the House of Representatives in its current form. “We are confident that the Prime Minister will be voting for the marriage equality bill unamended,” he said.