Religious schools in WA could lose right to discriminate against LGBTI students and staff
A new bill being introduced by the Greens would see private religious schools in Western Australia lose their legal right to discriminate against LGBTI students and staff.
Alison Xamon, WA Greens spokesperson for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, will introduce legislation to amend the state’s existing Equal Opportunities Act to prevent schools from being able to discriminate based on gender or sexuality, Out in Perth has reported.
The Greens said the change is a natural continuation of recent progress for LGBTI rights, including federal marriage equality and various states and territories moving to allow people with historical gay sex convictions to have their records cleared.
“The notion that schools can legally discriminate is clearly out of step with community expectations, and WA law is amongst the most backward in Australia,” Xamon said.
“We must now take immediate steps to repeal the last remaining law in WA that is discriminatory on the grounds of sexuality.”
The loophole in Western Australian law allowing discrimination by religious schools came under scrutiny last year when a Perth teacher was fired for coming out as gay.
Xamon said that for as long as the law allows such discrimination, the safety of LGBTI students and staff is subject the attitudes of principals.
“While most religious schools do not use this law and do not wish to, the danger to [LGBTI] students and staff is that a school’s policy can be unclear and can change when the principal does,” she said.
“Equal opportunity laws should be designed to protect all members of the community, but this currently is not the case in Western Australia.
“The Greens have always stood for equal rights for [LGBTI] people, so if the government won’t introduce legislation to prevent this discrimination legally occurring, then we will.”
Some lobbyists are still fighting for schools to be allowed to discriminate on religious grounds against LGBTI people.
During the federal government’s recent review into ‘religious freedom’, Christian Schools Australia and Adventist Schools Australia made a submission arguing to retain the right to hire and fire staff over religious beliefs and behaviour, including sexuality.
LGBTI advocacy groups have called for laws that remain in place allowing such discrimination to be abolished.
Whether it’s due to this bill or another one in the not-too-distant future change is going to happen.
Even if you passionately support religious freedom, the fundamental problem is that everyone is a sinner in some way or another according to the Bible. As Ned Flanders famously says to God in a Simpsons episode, “I’ve tried to follow the Bible, even the bits which contradict the other bits.” That’s the Christian reality in a nutshell and the more faithful you are the truer it gets.
So a school which sacks a gay teacher for being gay but keeps a divorced teacher or a blasphemous teacher or a jealous teacher or a thieving teacher (all are sins, three breach commandments but not the gay or divorced ones which are somehow the most “morally” concerning to many schools) on staff is likely headed for a suing on the grounds of massive distortion of christian values.
The law is unlikely to survive challenge by anyone who wants to take the question of what are Christian values to the High Court. Just get rid of it before the Christians have to embarrass themselves.