Harmonie wrote:
Yes, there can be legitimate religious discrimination. That would be something like "You worship Christ? We don't allow your kind in this workplace!" it would not be something like someone facing backlash for being homophobic in a workplace or refusing to use someone's pronouns and then saying it's because of their religion.
The latter is what I typically see. That is what conservative Christians in the US think is unforgivable discrimination against them over "sincerely-held religious beliefs". It is nonsense.
Expressed homophobia would be an example of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The person who is unlawfully discriminating against an LGBTQ+ person in that instance, could conceivably also receive unlawful discrimination during any backlash in the form of
belief discrimination.The law gets a bit murky in these types of cases in practice. It would be difficult to argue a discrimination case in a court of law for example, for homophobic backlash, because the person receiving
belief discrimination would also be perpetrating a different kind of discrimination (discrimination that violates the protected characteristic 'sexual orientation').