Watch ‘Drag Race’ Star Etcetera Etcetera’s Emotional Speech Against Religious Discrimination Act

Drag Race Down Under contestant and nonbinary trans legend Etcetera Etcetera delivered a powerful speech at the Sydney protest against the Religious Discrimination Bill on Sunday.

Local LGBTIQ communities and allies against the Bill gathered at Taylor Square on Gadigal land in Darlinghurst on Saturday afternoon to protest against the Religious Discrimination Bill. Before the march, Etcetera Etcetera addressed the crown, speaking to their experiences in religious institutions and the harm the proposed bill could and will cause.

“I have spent the last 23 years of my life coming to terms with who I was because I spent 13 years in incredibly religious, conservative school systems and in these school systems, I was taught the way that I am is wrong. I was taught it by teachers, I was taught it by peers and I was taught it by parents of my friends,” they said.

“If I didn’t have the support that I needed in those schools and if I did not have people standing up for me when I needed people to stand up for a young queer person when I was my most vulnerable, I probably would not be standing here today. So it is a shame that this government and other people in the government want to arise the protections for our young queer people in schools. They want to arise protection for queer people in institutions because it suits their so-called religious freedoms. Shame on them!

“The words I hear uttered by these right-wing conservatives are the same words I heard uttered by my bullies at school. And that is all they are: bullies. They are afraid of our beautiful, beautiful souls, our beautiful right to express who we are, and you know what they’re ashamed of? They’re ashamed of the fact that they will never love themselves as much as we love ourselves.”

“This bill,” they said, “does not represent all people of faith. My family and friends of faith have told me that these right-wing conservatives, pushing this religious freedoms bill does not represent them and do not represent ordinary Australians who wish to practice their faith in peace. It represents a fraction of society which will wish to take away everything we have fought for, that generations of queer people have fought for, and shame of them!”

“The survival of our story and our history is under attack by this current government. I will not let another story, another history, people we have never met because of oppression and because of violence. I will not let that happen again to people around me. We need to protect our queer youth from governments like ours.”

“And shame on them, that while we need to be fighting for all the Indigenous people wrongly incarcerated, the trans people of colour being murdered, women’s rights, refugee rights- this is our government’s priority! This is what our government wants to focus on!”

The proposed Bill will make it unlawful to discriminate against a person based on their faith, both professionally and personally. However, there will also be a clause to protect Australians who make statements of belief from anti-discrimination laws. Under this law, moderately expressed religious views are protected under religious freedom, as long as they do not incite hatred or violence. So, provided people are not inciting violence they’re free to express their beliefs however they see fit without fear of prosecution. LGBTIQ teachers in religious schools are already losing their jobs.

The bill is yet to be passed in parliament. You can watch the full speech by Etcetera Etcetera here, it starts around the 30-minute mark.