2 posts tagged “discrimination”

More on this story:

School formal gay couple ban 'illegal'

'Churchie' embroiled in anti-discrimination row

It turns out the school is in Brisbane, not Sydney, so perhaps I was a little hard on the Sydney Anglican diocese (still have problems with their conservative stance on other issues though, eg, the ordination of women). 

Anyway, good on those boys for being so courageous.  As someone quoted in the second article says:

"It takes a lot of courage for young men and women to come out as gay or lesbian when they're still at school and it takes a lot more courage, I think, than I had at that age to say that you want to take your partner to the school formal," she said.

I hope the student does decide to take this matter to the Anti-Discrimination Commission given that the school is undoubtedly acting unlawfully in this case.   

The conservatism of the Anglican church in Sydney really annoys me and this is just further proof of it.  You can be pretty sure that most teenagers would not want to risk embarrassment by taking a same sex partner to a school dance but what kind of message does this send to those who are feeling confused or questioning their sexuality.  My kids currently enrolled in half an hour per week of Anglican scripture at their (public) school and I am thinking of pulling them out - not least because my 5yo son now thinks his late grandfather and our old dog Max are both going to be resurrected "like Jesus".  This kind of discrimination just makes me more annoyed.  It comes on top of the announcement last week that Australia is to get its first ever female Anglican bishop.  This could not happen in Sydney as women are not allowed to become Ministers in the Sydney diocese. 

My daughter was doing Uniting Church scripture last year but we switched her out of that as the teacher (a volunteer - as all the scripture teachers are) sounded like a bit of a nut case and also all her friends were doing Anglican so she wanted to do that. 

We are not particularly religious ourselves but figured a bit of scripture wasn't going to harm the kids and would help them make up their own mind about their beliefs.  Also the alternative is to be sitting in the library with the other 'non-scripture' kids doing colouring in or watching videos which seems like a colossal waste of school time.  I'm still amazed that they have scripture in public schools in what is meant to be a secular country.  Apart from Anglican and Uniting, our school also offers Islam, Catholic and Orthodox scripture.  I think they theoretically could offer comparative religions or courses in ethics but the volunteers have to be available to teach them.