1. 'Appalling' law lets schools expel gay
students David Marr
February 12, 2011
A SENIOR Anglican bishop calls it "appalling" and a gay and lesbian rights group
condemns it as "deeply offensive", but the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos,
backs a NSW law that allows private schools to expel gay students simply for
being gay.
Through a spokesman, Mr Hatzistergos, described the 30-year-old law as
necessary "to maintain a sometimes delicate balance between protecting
individuals from unlawful discrimination while allowing people to practise their
own beliefs".
A relic of the Wran era when homosexuality was still a crime, the law exempts
private schools from any obligation to enrol or deal fairly with students who are
homosexual. An expulsion requires neither disruption, harassment nor even the
flaunting of sexuality. Being homosexual is enough.
Introducing the little-known law in the early 1980s, the then attorney-general
Paul Landa told Parliament: "The facts of political life require acceptance of the
claim of churches to conduct autonomous educational institutions with a special
character and faith commitment."
But the churches are now divided. The Anglican bishop of South Sydney, Robert
Forsyth, told the Herald: "I don't think our schools would want to use it."
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney declined to distance itself from the
legislation. A spokeswoman said: "The focus for our schools has always been on
supporting our students regardless of the circumstances."
The chief executive of ACON, Nicolas Parkhill, condemned the law as "deeply
offensive, patently unethical and damaging to our society on multiple levels.
Recent research shows that young same-sex-attracted people are up to 14 times
more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers and that 80 per cent
of the verbal or physical abuse they experience occurs in schools. "Allowing
religious schools to reinforce this negative experience by giving them the right to
expel the victims of homophobic attitudes is incomprehensible."
Although "not untroubled" by the legislation himself, the chief executive of
Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O'Doherty, told the Herald the 130-plus low-
fee schools in his association saw no reason to ditch the law. Many of the schools
regard unrepentant gay students as "disruptive to the religious teaching of the
school", he explained. "What we seek to do is to be able to take appropriate
action which may include expulsion."
Brigadier Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby has no qualms about the
law. The head of the influential Christian pressure group said a church school
should have the right to expel any openly gay child.
"But I would expect any church that found itself in that situation to do that in the
most loving way that it could for the child and to reduce absolutely any negative
affects. "I think that you explain: this is a Christian school, that unless the child is
prepared to accept that it is chaste, that it is searching for alternatives as well,
that the school may decide that it might be better for the child as well that he
goes somewhere else. I think it's a loving response."