BY JANE ARMANASCO
PERTH — As a homophobic campaign rages in Western Australia, the November 6 sacking of Edith Cowan University Catholic chaplain Father David Watt has raised questions about how best to defend gay and lesbian rights.
Watt was fired from his (voluntary) position as a direct consequence of signing an advertisement in the November 3 West Australian claiming that "families are at risk from gay and lesbian reform". Next to his signature, Watt had listed his connection with ECU.
The reform in question is a bill currently before the WA parliament, which includes provisions to bring the age of consent for gay men (currently 21) down to the same level as heterosexuals, to cover gays and lesbians under the Equal Opportunities Act and to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children and lesbians to access IVF programs.
The bill has aroused fierce debate in WA, with some homophobic parliamentarians accusing the government of "social engineering".
The full-page advertisement, signed by 191 church groups and religious leaders, encouraged people to attend a November 8 rally to stop the reforms. The rally had been built through church networks since August.
Reverend Margaret Court said at the rally, "We don't want to go into darkness, immorality. Our nation was built on biblical constitutions with Christian principles... tear this legislation down, we need to stand up for the rights of our children. We're a Christian nation and need to stand up for Christian principles."
Court and the other signatories were, and are, openly advocating discrimination against gay men and lesbians based on ignorance and prejudice.
Justifying the decision to sack Watt, ECU student service centre director Jeff Murray said that Watt had identified himself as an ECU representative in a public campaign without seeking authorisation and had compromised the university publicly. According to Murray, the university's anti-discrimination policies were also a factor in the sacking.
However, the conditions under which he was fired are questionable. Only three days after the advertisement was published, the Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey received a letter from ECU's vice-chancellor Millicent Poole explaining that Watt was no longer required as a Catholic chaplain.
Poole said that ECU would ask the Catholic Church to send them somebody who was "willing to work within the chaplaincy team and its guidelines". Hickey's media representative said this was "not very likely".
The Catholic Church is not accepting ECU's decision, adamant that the university had no grounds to sack Watt.
It is hardly surprising that a Catholic chaplain would be homophobic, given the anti-gay and anti-lesbian position of the Catholic Church hierarchy. This is one reason to oppose the granting of "official status" (along with access to facilities and privileges) to priests and other religious leaders at universities.
But many who oppose such homophobic positions, however, point out that this does not mean we should support politically motivated sackings.
Watt was not sacked for the way he performed his job, he was sacked because he expressed a public viewpoint with which the university disagreed. If the university administration was able to sack every such dissident, then all those employees who oppose the university's positions, including gay and lesbian activists campaigning for increased services on campus, would be at risk.
Especially at a time when the federal government is seeking to introduce more laws restructing civil liberties, we must oppose attacks on the right to free speech, even if we do not agree with what is being said.
In any case, there is a more effective way to struggle against homophobic priests than by attempting to forcibly shut them up. Since the sacking, which received enormous media coverage, public support for Watt has simply fed the anti-gay and lesbian hysteria in the local papers.
Gay law reform isn't just about changing laws, it's about changing attitudes. This is easiest when there is the fullest debate possible. Organising protests against the homophobes is a better way to win support for gay and lesbian rights. That's the sort of campaign needed to ensure equality for everyone — regardless of sexual preference.
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.