Based in Sydney’s east, Emanuel was founded as a progressive synagogue, and already has celebrations for anniversaries of gay relationships, and rituals for coming out and gender affirmation.
Ninio is just one of the faith leaders who have been proselytising the message that advocacy for LGBTI rights and religion don’t sit uneasily together, but go hand in hand.
Legalising same-sex marriage is needed to inject faith back into what could become a secular institution, to transform the secular into the sacred, she says.
“I feel my religious freedom is being infringed by not being able to perform a [same-sex] marriage.” [...]
The human rights commissioner, Ed Santow, who gave the keynote address at the forum, says LGBTI people of faith have “largely been missing” from the national debate.
“It’s vital that those voices and concerns of those people are heard in this debate, not least because ... LGBTI people of faith fall into some of the highest risk categories of poorer mental health outcomes as a consequence of their lived experience.”
Santow says the perception of a division of interests between LGBTI and religious people needs to be broken down.
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