A woman who was fired for opposing sex same marriage in Australia claims she was attacked for her religious beliefs.
The 18-year-old, identified only as Madeline, lost her job at a children’s entertainment company after encouraging her social media followers to vote no in the postal survey on gay marriage.
In a public Facebook post, her former employer said she did not want her business linked with the contractor’s views.
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“Voting no is homophobic [and] advertising your homophobia is hate speech,” said owner Madlin Sims, adding that she was acting out of concern for the children Madeline would be working with.
“Just like I wouldn’t want someone who is racist working with us ... I wasn’t comfortable having someone who was so out and proud about being against equality,” she added.
In an interview with ABC, Madeline said she felt she had been had discriminated against her because of her Christian religion and denied being homophobic.
“I love everyone, I’m not a hateful person at all,” she said. “I wish that everyone could have equality ... but to vote yes, to me, is something I can’t do.”
Lawyers warn that Madeleine could take her former boss to court. The law protects the political and religious views of employees and contractors, “regardless of whether they support or oppose marriage equality”, The Guardian reports.
However, Madeline says she doesn’t plan to take legal action. “I am tempted to but at this point I don’t feel like it would do anything. I don’t feel like it would make me a bigger and better person if I did,” she said.
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