By Michelle Wickham
SYDNEY — Guided tours of the Opera House by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a part of the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, have been cancelled after objections from the Catholic Church.
The gay male "nuns" are an annual entrant in the Mardi Gras parade and present a satirical response to the Catholic Church's homophobia and rigid morality. Whilst the tours had been approved by the Opera House, they were later cancelled at the church's request.
Opera House chief executive Michael Lynch made a formal apology to the church. To the Sisters he offered the insight: "Tolerance is a two-way street". The Opera House's decision highlights the fact that discrimination against gays and lesbians is in fact a one-way street.
The Catholic Church has been one of the chief instigators of attacks on lesbians, gays and Mardi Gras events. The Anti-Vilification Law contains a clause which renders exempting churches and allowing them to propagate homophobia.
Research by the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project shows that gay men were at least four times more likely than other men to be assaulted, while lesbians were six times more likely than other women to be assaulted.
A Victorian Gays and Lesbians Against Discrimination survey in 1994 found that 49% of lesbians and 44% of gay men reported some form of discrimination or harassment in employment. Other areas of discrimination included access to services, accommodation, education or other public institutions and custody rights.
In 1995, Bob Carr, then leader of the Labor opposition, promised to introduce a bill to recognise gay couples. Four years later, the bill still does not exist.
Gay couples are also systematically discriminated against in access to adoption, fostering and artificial reproduction programs. In Victoria, the Equal Opportunity Commission allows discrimination by an employer where the employee is working with children under 18 and is identified as gay.
In NSW the age of consent for homosexuals remains higher than that for heterosexuals. Influential institutions such as the media adopt a homophobic attitude in their representations of gay and lesbian people, reinforcing the oppression.