The Presbyterian Church has declared that gay and queer students should not hold school leadership positions.
Ugh. What a start to the weekend.
The church expressed its views in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission about religious discrimination laws.
The cooked statement said that students who are “in an active same-sex relationship” or a “sexually active unmarried heterosexual relationship” would “not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling of Christian living”.
Yikes.
I’m not sure how to put this eloquently, but if your idea of “Christian living” involves the discrimination of young queer kids, you can shove those Christian values up your clacker.
The statement was given in response to the Australian Law Reform Commission, who have proposed changes to wind back the rights religious schools have to discriminate against students or teachers based on their faith (or lack thereof).
The commission put forward a scenario that schools could no longer refuse LGBTQIA+ students’ positions as school captains.
But the Presbyterian Church argued that “in both cases, the proposal removes from schools the ability to determine an ethos by selecting appropriate leaders.”
The Presbyterian Church runs more than 20 schools and preschools, including some of Australia’s most prestigious and elite private schools.
Unsurprisingly, the evangelical Australian Christian Churches organisation also gobbled up the bullshit, arguing that students in faith-based schools already need to accept clearly established religious beliefs before they’re enrolled.
No prizes to guess what that entails.
“The issue here is whether a student who has decided to announce and celebrate their LGBTIQA+ orientation can be held up by the school as school captains usually are, as an ‘example and role model’ to other students, when to do so is contrary to the religious teachings that underpin all the school’s activities,” Pastor Mark Edwards told The Daily Telegraph.
“Those teachings and boundaries are made clear to students and families before enrolling and are accepted as a condition of enrolment.
“It is not unreasonable to expect that agreement to be honoured.”
Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin.
It’s hard enough for kids to grow up queer in a world that’s littered with hatred and bigotry towards them. It’s a completely other ballgame to openly deny kids opportunities simply based on their sexuality, especially in an environment that’s meant to support their wellbeing and growth.
To be able to celebrate your queerness in a school — especially a religious one — isn’t done flippantly. It’s no secret that schools are rife with homophobia.
In fact, 74% of kids that suffer from homophobic violence and harassment have received it in the schoolyard. This number increases for kids aged 14-17, with 89% reporting homophobic abuse.
It shouldn’t have to be said, but every kid deserves a right to a safe school environment — and every queer kid deserves to hold positions of power without being persecuted by the people who are meant to protect them.
Deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, has hit back at the church’s comments.
“We can’t see a situation where we’re inadvertently discriminating against kids,” he told Nine’s Today program.
“Leadership and the qualities of leadership are not a function of people’s sexual orientation and we need to make sure we have the widest pool of people for leadership positions across our society.”
The commission will hand their final report to the attorney-general on April 21.
Quite frankly, the idea that gay students can’t be school captains belongs in the bin — right with the people who support it.
