Lyle Shelton says gay students should only be expelled if they have sex
Image: Lyle Shelton. (Picture: David Alexander; Star Observer)
Australian Conservatives Senate candidate Lyle Shelton has said that LGBTI students should only be expelled from religious schools if they have sex.
The former head of the Australian Christian Lobby said it should not be necessary for schools to expel students if they come out or are outed at school.
Appearing on Sky News last night, Shelton claimed he is “not aware of any epidemic of religious schools banning gay students.”
“I’m not aware of anyone who is gay being expelled from a religious school… I’m not aware of this being an issue.
“I don’t think there is a need to have a protection, or a freedom to ban gays per se, but there is a need for school communities to have the freedom to deal with behaviours that might disrupt the freedom of the wider community to enjoy the ethos that they want to have as part of their freedom of association.”
Shelton clarified in an interview with Fairfax Media that he thinks students’ enrolment should come into question as a matter of “behaviour”, after yesterday dismissing the leaked Ruddock review finding that religious freedoms have not been impacted by marriage equality.
“A school should be allowed to ensure that they can protect their ethos,” he said.
“If individuals are acting in a way that’s not in accordance with the well-known ethos of that school, those schools should be able to do what they need to do to preserve that.”
Shelton said schools should “absolutely” be allowed to expel students for having sex with someone of the same sex.
“It’s not up to the government to tell people what their religious beliefs should or shouldn’t be.
“Religious communities obviously have moral codes. Some people get hung up on sex, but there are a whole lot of voluntary codes that are adhered to by these communities.”
Shelton responded once the interview was published, saying, “That’s not quite what I meant.”
“It would be good if alternative worldviews could be taken more seriously, instead of demonised and ridiculed. Debate would be better.”
Journalist Michael Koziol, who conducted the interview, replied, “I asked that specific question twice, but if it needs to be clarified, by all means let’s do that.”
“I don’t recall your comment as a specific question to me but my mind wasn’t going where your’s (sic) was,” Shelton tweeted.
“My point was about the freedom to preserve the organisation’s ethos where people’s behaviour (not necessarily of a sexual nature) sought to undermine it.”
Meanwhile, Senator Derryn Hinch said he would move a motion to strip schools of public funding should they exercise their ‘right to discriminate’ against LGBTI staff and students.
Hinch tweeted that the motion would call “for any private school that discriminates against a teacher or student on sexuality grounds be stripped of all government funds and charity status.”
I wonder if Lyle Sheldon thinks the rule should be applied to straight kids – or girls who fall pregnant? Are they to be expelled too?
You cannot stop Gay Students from having sex . evan if they are out of school hours of on the weekends . its part of life people should have to accept it. i can remember when i was in High School when a class mate and myself had sex in a toilet block . know one new about us but in those days we never told our Parents what we did . it was always kept quiet between us. so the school did not know and our parents did not know. after a 20 years i told my parents about it after i told them i am Gay and now i have a Partner who i love and been with him for 3 years now and my mum & dad are so happy for me. i am going to propose to him for marriage next year. so Lyne you should take your bat & ball and go Home and just accept it . its not going to go away. !!!
Lyle is part of that group in the community who apply a strict, literal interpretation to the Bible. Depending on how and what you translate, you can twist the Bible around to justify any position you want. Remember, in the 19th century the Bible was used to justify slavery! Even today, some use selective interpretation to subjugate women!
No where in the Bible does it condemn anyone for being same-sex attracted! Even the texts from Leviticus and Romans, that some of these folks love to troop out to justify their intolerance, are misunderstood or mistranslated extracts.
Some Christian and Jewish traditions today, support same-sex marriage and folks in same-sex relationships. Far too many fundamentalists, nevertheless, make far too much noise, suggesting their view is paramount or superior to others. It isn’t.
It’s so good to see appropriate contempt being shown towards Lyle’s absurd views! Happily, the rest of the world (including much of the religious part of it) has moved on!
And yet Lyle has nothing at all to say about the right of schools to expel or sack people who adopt another faith, or people who become atheist, or single women who become pregnant, or people who blaspheme, or people who covet their neighbour’s ass (who can resist dropping that one in?) or folks who eat shellfish or wear cotton-poly blends or any of the myriad of other “sinners” picked out in bible verses?
You don’t suppose he’s a homophobe?
If someone was openly and publicly fucking somebody in the schoolyard they’d probably expect to be expelled. It’s not a gay thing, it’s a civil society thing.
What happens consensually behind closed doors is nobody’s business though.
So how is Lyle going to explain what the burden of proof is here? You would literally have to be caught doing it in the schoolyard given modern technology’s capacity to invent digital images, therefore photographic evidence is now very questionable. Will he be swabbing for DNA? Why won’t he give details? Surely he’s not completely full of shit? Not Lyle!
Lyle is an idiot who is full of shit is the only feasible conclusion. And he’s a number 1 Senate candidate for the Australian Conservatives.