Every day around Australia, LGBTQ+ students and staff are being legally discriminated against in religious schools.
Genuine efforts have been made by some faith-based schools to counter this trend, ensuring children feel safe when they walk through the school gate and teachers are not forced to hide who they are or the relationships they go home to.
At the same time, numerous inquiries, debates and attempts to change the law have resulted in dead ends and now a stalemate, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refusing to proceed with legislative reform without bipartisanship.
Inclusive religious schools show us that it is possible to educate all students, equally. Their approach to the issue also proves the foundations of faith don’t crumble when gay or trans kids and teachers are shown care and acceptance within respectful and safe learning environments.
But while some religious schools offer their communities welcoming faith and pastoral care, research by Equality Australia released in March this year found many continue to discriminate against LGBTQ+ teachers and students.
The report, Dismissed, Denied and Demeaned1, is the first attempt to fully quantify the impact and scale of this problem, while also presenting clear legal and policy strategies to end these discriminatory practices. Sadly, it found LGBTQ+ discrimination is endemic in religious schools around the country and that Australia is well behind international law and practice, with reform urgently needed at a Commonwealth level and in all states and territories.
The report contains 26 personal stories of discrimination; three are outlined opposite:
In year 10 I applied to become a prefect at my Sydney school and was told I had a good chance of succeeding. Afterwards I told a teacher that I might be gay. I was pulled into a meeting with my year co-ordinator and vice principal and told I could no longer become a prefect. I was also warned not to tell anyone, including my brother and sisters. The school outed me to my parents, who acted on the school’s request to get me ‘counseling’. One day I came out to everyone in my class. The school suspended me and made me meet with an ‘ex-gay’ man who told me that I could change. I was forced to stop leadership camps and other extracurricular activities such as choir and fundraising committees. It took years to undo the damage this did to me and my family.
James Elliott-Watson, former Christian school student
I am a committed Christian and ordained pastor. In 2020 I was fired from my role at a Baptist tertiary college in Sydney after I became engaged to my now wife, Bronte. I had worked there for over two years, lecturing in chaplaincy and spiritual care. The college issued a statement to my students after I was fired, acknowledging that I had a deep and abiding faith and Jesus and was an ‘excellent and committed educator’. In spite of that, the statement explained the principal had made the decision to fire me with the support of the College Board and Leadership Team, based on the college’s position on same-sex marriage. I still worry about the message that was sent to my students—and all queer kids watching— knowing they could be treated that way, too.
Karen Pack, Baptist college teacher
When I was 13, I came out as transgender and my life changed forever. I had recently moved from an all-boys school to the Anglican co-ed high school my brother went to because I thought it would be easier to be myself there. This did not turn out to be the case. The school said if I ‘came out’ they would be required to notify all parents in the year that I was trans and that my brother’s potential in student leadership would be compromised.
I wasn’t officially expelled but they effectively forced me to leave and I had to start again at a new school, which was hugely difficult at such a tumultuous period of my life. Schools should not be allowed to discriminate against students for any reason and use underhanded tactics and intimidation against children.
Olivia, Anglican co-ed high school student
One in three students and almost two in five staff are enrolled or employed in private schools, most of which are religiously affiliated. The report conservatively estimates more than 70,000 students and 10,000 staff in non-government schools are LGBTQ+.
To measure inclusion within religious schools, the report analysed websites, social media, and publicly available policies and statements, as well as news articles and other sources from a range of religious educational institutions in Australia, including 10 Catholic education authorities responsible for more than 1,200 Catholic school systems and 98 independent schools.
This analysis determined students and staff at independent schools are especially vulnerable to discrimination, with children more likely to attend an independent school that discriminates against them than supports them.
Out of 98 independent schools, almost 40 per cent were found to have ‘discriminatory’ to ‘strongly discriminatory’ attitudes and practices. Non-denominational Christian schools performed the worst, and only six schools were clear that their religious ethos was not coded language for discriminatory attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people.
When it comes to the Catholic system, one in three students are enrolled in schools controlled by authorities where there is evidence of discriminatory practices. Larger educational authorities (responsible for more than 100 schools) are more likely to be discriminatory than smaller ones (less than 100 schools).
Only four of the 10 Catholic educational authorities have at least some public examples of LGBTQ+-affirming practices. Nine out of 10 of the authorities reviewed (who together educate 70 per cent of all students in Australian Catholic schools) publish so little information about LGBTQ+ inclusion that it’s impossible for prospective parents, students or employees to know whether they will be welcomed or face discrimination. This is also the case for almost one in three independent schools.
This lack of information and uncertainty signals to LGBTQ+ people they must remain hidden and ashamed of who they are if they want to keep their jobs or stay at school. At best, the report’s analysis highlights a systemic suppression of LGBTQ+ identities and lives; at worst it’s an indicator of what happens behind closed doors.
Despite a promise before coming to power to resolve the issue, the Albanese Government has so far failed to introduce a religious discrimination framework.
Labor’s pre-election commitment was twofold: To close a carveout in Federal law when it comes to protecting people of faith from discrimination and to remove the legal exemptions that allow religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and staff. The reforms would still maintain religious institutions’ right to preference people of their faith, where reasonable, when they hire staff.
The issue haunted the former Morrison government, which only months out from the 2022 Federal election attempted to make good on its own promise of a religious discrimination framework, prompting five Liberal MPs to cross the floor to vote with Labor and the crossbench in support of changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.
Section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) currently allows religious educational institutions to discriminate against staff and students based on their gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy and marital status.
Equality Australia, the Independent Education Union and the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) have all documented multiple cases of discrimination, including teachers who have been fired or denied promotions for being gay, marrying a divorcee or becoming pregnant out of marriage or with the assistance of IVF.
Students have also been forced out of school or denied leadership positions based on their sexuality, and parents have been denied enrolment for their children because they were in a same-sex relationship.
Catholic Secondary Principals Australia (CaSPA) told a recent ALRC inquiry that discrimination was antithetical to the Christian faith and there should not be “a legislative ‘out’ for religious schools”. It also stated that inclusion should be for all students and the law needed to safeguard teachers, so they don’t have to live “covert lives and have opportunities denied”2.
The final ALRC report3 found there was strong public support, including among parents and people of faith, for removing special exemptions allowing religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and others. It also found that the religious ethos of a school could be maintained without such exemptions. Handing the government a blueprint for report, Justice Stephen Rothman made 11 recommendations including the blanket removal of section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act.
These schools rely on millions of dollars of taxpayer funding every year, yet they are not required to uphold the same non-discriminatory practices that other government schools and institutions have abided by for decades.
Furthermore, teachers are placed in the profoundly unethical position of being forced to act against the best interests of students and violate their own duty of pastoral care.
The Federal government is currently sitting on two draft bills which are expected to protect LGBTIQ+ students and teachers in religious schools as well as women and people of faith, ensuring a teacher could not lose her job for falling pregnant outside of marriage, a Catholic gardener could not be fired from an evangelical school or that a leadership position could be denied to a gay student.
The law in Australia is manifestly out of step with 21st century community expectations and it urgently needs to change.
Any principals or other educators who support these reforms are strongly encouraged to contact us on info@equalityaustralia.org.au.
Teachers and students who have experienced discrimination can share their experiences with us here: https://equalityaustralia.org.au/our-work/freedom-from-discrimination.
By Anna Brown, Equality Australia CEO
References:
1. Dismissed, Denied and Demeaned: a national report on LGBTQ+ discrimination in faith-based schools and organisations https://equalityaustralia.org.au/resources/ dismissed-denied-and-demeaned-a-national-report-on-lgbtq-discrimination-in-faith-based-schools-and-organisations
2. ALRC Report 142, 2023 https://alrc.gov.au/wp-content/ uploads/2024/03/ALRC-ADL-Final-Report-142.pdf
3. CaSPA submission to the ALRC https://alrc.gov.au/ wp-content/uploads/2023/03/363.-Catholic-Secondary- Principals-Australia-CaSPA.pdf
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