Religious bigotry "above the law"

OK yes that heading is a bit inflammatory. It's not though saying anything that's not true for some people. Indeed, the Christian fundy bigot's default position of hating gays is often viewed by many as simply their political stance, what they believe from a dark ages religion. And whoa to all who dare to challenge their faith and all. 

Well darlings, their fuckin faith deserved to be challenged the moment it stepped into my bedroom, and started preaching to me how evil I was. 

But am I evil? Nobody who knows me now, or has ever known me, has ever thought of me as evil. Last years though, in pursuit of love, I've entered a minority that is much hated in many parts of the world. I've entered the gay world. Very quickly, even though I'm in eastern Sydney, I learned that people would hate me for who I might love. Because of their own fears of their own sexuality, those same people hated me. 

I must say for some time it was a hard thing to get used to. To me I was just following myself to where ever I ended up. I ended up getting with guys. That didn't negate anything from my past, including the deep love for my wife in times of extreme difficulty. In those times I was admired for my love of her. But now people may well hate me for my love of David. It appears I've joined a hated minority discriminated against, even in Australia.

I've looked and researched, mystified as to why I'm suddenly a target of hate. It always comes back to religion. Now I find a court case in Australia of someone claiming their religion is above our law.

The religion involved in the break up was not revealed in the judgment, in which the ex-wife won her bid for custody of three of the children.

Some of the ex-husband's efforts to avoid taking part in the hearing were described as ``extraordinary''. At one stage, he refused to answer questions like whether he was an Australian citizen or not.

Judge Burchardt said he also declined to say whether he was acting on his own behalf.

``(He) stated in the clearest of terms that the court did not have jurisdiction ... because, as he put it, his marriage was governed by a contract entered into pursuant to (religion),'' the judge said.

The ex-wife's divorce application was signed off by a lawyer after she alleged it was a ``verbally, psychologically and financially'' abusive marriage.

She left after her daughter had a knife held to her throat by her father in a foreign country. more