Relationship Status

In the ACT it is against the law for someone to discriminate against you because of a characteristic that you have, or that someone thinks you have, in an area of public life such as employment, education, accommodation, provision of goods and services, and clubs.

It is against the law for someone to discriminate against you because or your relationship status. This can include being married or living in a de facto relationship or being in a relationship with or married to a person of the same sex. This could also include discrimination because your relationship is intact or is no longer intact and you have shared custody of children.

Examples of relationship status discrimination

Mark has recently married his male partner. He has a wedding photo on his desk at work but his supervisor has asked him to take it down as he says other staff have complained about him flaunting his sexuality at work.

Janet and her partner have separated but they have joint parental responsibility for their two children. Janet has been told by the childcare centre she is not allowed to come to any events at the child care centre as they do not want to manage any disputes between her and the children’s father.

Barb & Cate have been in a relationship for six years. They are co-parenting Barbs children by her former male partner who is currently living overseas. The school registration for the children is based on their birth certificates which records Barb and her previous male partner.  While Barb has told the school a number of times Barb is her new partner and has parental responsibility for the children the school has intermittently refused to let Cate pick the children up because she is not a registered parent.