Professor Anna Hickey-Moody discusses implementations to better improve anti-discrimination laws

Professor Anna Hickey-Moody, from The Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT, joined On the Record’s Fiona Bartholomaeus, to discuss lack of protection towards queer youth in religious schools, recommendations to changes in the law and what the future looks like.


Prof. Hickey-Moody said that “The set of laws we discuss relate only to religious school and religious organisations run by religious societies” and “The Australian Law Reform Commission has been investigating whether the laws were still aligned with the current culture.”

Prof. Hickey-Moody stated that the report compiled by The Australian Law Reform Commission was with the sole intention of centring “Youth Voice“. There was 103 people consulted with almost all being from a conservative or religious background, a written entry was completed by 428 people, one of which was a minor and there were 41,000 survey responses with less than half of the responses coming from people under 18, which is a very low amount of youth voice.

Prof Hickey-Moody added that “they would’ve liked to see strategic consultation with organisations and communities that have worked to bring youth and religion together, rather than accept the dominant idea that religion is homophobic.”.