Queensland Education Department To Leave Pride In Diversity Program

Queensland’s Department of Education is ending its membership of Pride in Diversity after a parliamentary petition opposing the LGBTQIA+ workplace inclusion program attracted just 914 signatures.

The department confirmed it had begun withdrawing from the ACON-run initiative following a review of its external memberships.

Petition targets Pride In Diversity Program in Education Queensland 

“The department has determined that continued participation does not align with its current requirements and has commenced the process to end its membership,” a department spokesperson said.

The department had been a member since 2018 and was named a Platinum Employer in the 2026 Australian Workplace Equality Index awards.

Pride in Diversity is a national, not-for-profit employer support program established by ACON in 2009. It assists organisations with LGBTQIA+ employment policies, staff training, employee networks and workplace inclusion strategies.

The program also administers the Australian Workplace Equality Index, which benchmarks participating organisations’ inclusion practices.

Pride in Diversity was established with assistance from Stonewall UK and Diversity Council Australia to help reduce workplace exclusion, invisibility, homophobia and stigma.

However, recently the department’s membership became the subject of a Queensland Parliament petition lodged by Queensland mother Nerissa Pace.

The petition claims the relationship between Education Queensland and ACON “influences student activities, classroom content and recruitment”.

It also states: “Parents have received no formal notice of alliance and want transparency” and calls ACON a “national advocate for transgender ideology.”

The petition cites a 2026 survey of 1,072 Australian parents, including 190 Queensland respondents, to claim 78.4 per cent of Queensland parents were uncomfortable with the relationship. However, no publicly available methodology or independent reporting for the survey could be located.

It further quotes a departmental aim to “expand whole-of-department participation in key LGBTQ+ events such as IDAHOBIT, Wear it Purple Day and Pride — with a focus on communications in schools and across regions” and states that “Education Queensland has supported five school-based staff to transgender according to their ‘Proud at Work’ statement.”

According to The Courier Mail the department has rejected the suggestion that Pride in Diversity was a student program, saying its membership was staff-based.

Its published Proud at Work policy similarly describes a workforce strategy intended to improve the safety, wellbeing and engagement of LGBTQIA+ employees, not a program targeted at or involving students.

The department’s 2026 Platinum project examined the workplace experiences of trans and gender-diverse staff, gathering employee accounts to inform resources for managers, human resources practitioners and other staff.

ACON has previously disputed characterisations of Pride in Diversity as a lobbying or student education initiative.

“Pride in Diversity is not a public advocacy program,” Pride Inclusion Programs director Dawn Emsen-Hough told Star Observer in 2022. “Its remit is strictly related to workplace diversity and inclusion practice.”