Gay rights in schools now front page news!

[UnderARock]

Hey guys,
I have been on here in awhile but 2day I found something that i just have to share. While at work I noticed the cover of The Courier Mail (a Brisbane based Queensland paper) SCHOOL BANS GAY COUPLES
The story was about a catholic all boys school not letting same-sex couple go to their formal. To be honest in my experience I dont find it surprising at all especially since it is a religious school. Its something im sure we are all use but wat make it huge news for me was that it was on the front cover.
Gay rights are now a front cover story. There were related articles in the following couple of pages. This is the 1st time I've ever seen a pro-gay story in a local paper (I have seen anti ones b4) and on the cover. I think this is a good sign. The link to the online version of the article is below. Please read it, vote on the poll and comment on the story. This will hopefully show the paper that gay right are a worthy wild thing to report on.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...64-952,00.html

Also do you know where ur school would stand on this issue. I went to a private christian hs. They never directly address the issue but I quite sure they wouldnt allow it. They actually had a policy that you couldnt take any one outside the school to formal, so i guess that indirectly stopped gay couples.

[waitingsucks]

Yeah I think that it's great that homophobic schools are getting more and more pollitical pressure to be tollerant. I also go to quite a homophobic school, the language that the teachers used to described this "issue" is spot on.

This article is well worth a read!

[dictionary]

The 1st school is anglican... the one whitch the story was based... which suprises me... i thought they were fairly liberal when it came to things like this... am i wrong?

lol the catholic education office responce dosent shock me but.. i proberly would have expected them to burn them on the stake or something...

I go to a catholic all boys school... firstly i would nevwer be out at school... none would..
but if two boys wanted to go i cant see them objecting as its in the school's policy to not discriminate...

I spose the school in the story is in a bit of an aquward situation... as it proberly recives funding from the church... and posibly would be denied funding ... dosent make it right but...

lol reminds me of summer heights high "tamsen we have decided to alow lezbians come to the formal"

"As such we would not see it as appropriate for couples in a same-sex relationship to attend an event such as a school formal,"

what a rude thing to say

[heatqueen]

Good to see lots of people voted 'yes' in the poll.

[Alex89]

That's great! I live in Brisbane (capital of Queensland, Australia) but I never get the paper so I didn't see this.

Nice to see people are starting to get used to the idea that not everyone is the same.

[beckyg]

Originally Posted by heatqueen

Good to see lots of people voted 'yes' in the poll.

The margin is quite high!

Unfortunately as its a private school nothing any government body says makes any difference, the decision must come from the inside...from Catholic school executives but i can see them caving in to a consensus of the public...from what i know religious pivate schools don't like negative images like discrimaniation being projected into the community.

Its good news to see issues like this going on the front page and onto the newsreels so that people recognise that discimination like this and others cannot be tolerated... especially in Australia.

[joeyconnick]

There was a similar case of a same-sex male couple being banned from a Catholic school prom in Ontario here in Canada a few years back. They took them to court and forced them to allow same-sex couples, which was sweet. You can Google "Marc Hall" for more info. Of course it was more cut-and-dried in Ontario because the Catholic schools there are publicly funded. (Please don't ask me why that is--I'm not sure anyone understands it other than it's historical.)

However I disagree with Bev26 saying there's nothing any government body can do--just because an institution is private doesn't mean it can break the law with impunity and discriminate randomly. It's certainly a lot less clear who and what has jurisdiction in the case of a private school but if, say, the teachers there were abusing their students, I'm pretty sure the government would not be dissuaded from stepping in by claims that "we're a private school--we can do whatever we like."

I don't really know how non-discrimination law works in Australia but here in Canada it's pretty strong and there's been quite a few times where sexuality has "triumphed" over religion, which I'm always glad for. I think the fact the private institution is providing a public service definitely makes the issue a lot more complicated than "oh it's private, nothing can be done."

My private all-boys high school was officially secular but had been Anglican in the past and had a lot of the Anglican trappings still going on when I went there. I doubt they've ever had to face the "gay couple at prom" issue if only because homosexuality so thoroughly does not exist at this school. That is, of course it exists but it's never really acknowledged in any real way. To this day, although I've met a lot of people who have come out right after leaving, I've never heard tell of anyone who was actually openly gay while a student there. I would LOVE to see them have to let same-sex couples into grad/prom!

I went to my grad with a good friend of mine who was female and didn't come out until I was 2 years into uni. However, I was dating a guy who was graduating and I went to his grad as his date about 5 years later, which was awesome. Of course, he went to a public school so there were no religious arguments to be raised.

[SamAlex728]

i read most of it and voted
the poll is now at
77% yes
22% no
but the other 1%?

[joeyconnick]

Originally Posted by goincrazy728

i read most of it and voted
the poll is now at
77% yes
22% no
but the other 1%?

Probably rounding error.

On the point of Private Schools and their relation to government responses, unfortunately private education facilities are not covered by the same anti-discimination laws as public education. In most cases disrimination complaints have to be directed from a direct legal approach (i.e. sue or court proceedings) or an informal appeal to the school executive.

Despite the fact that they are schools and do provide a public service, they are independent of Government and the department of education and training and are not binded to government policies and guidelines.

[SkyTears]

"Demand an end to this oppression of the only remaining minority that is still legal to oppress."

I love that kids quote! I'm so stealing it.

[xavier28]

Yeah i attend a local high school and i am out to all. Our school doesn't lt same sex couples come to formal events.

[UnderARock]

So in today's (Monday) paper there was a follow up. Quentin Bryce becoming Governor General was on the front paper. But on page 3 was Gay ban boycott threat It appears that the link that i put in the 1st point points to the follow up article now, soz if u missed the original article. I didn't see Sunday's paper so idk if there was anything in that. In the letters page there were a mix of views but most were pro. Seems like there going to be some mention of this in the paper for the next few days. I wonder if any1 from that school is on EC?

To save u all scrolling back up to the top of the page heres the link again which now goes to the follow up article

[mostashio]

I seen this story on Sunrise this morning (i think it was sunrise)
For anyone who doesn't know, Sunrise is like a morning news program on the Tv.

[awesomeap88]

i think yesterday on weekend sunrise they did an interview with the principal of the school. i will go and check out their website and see if it is on there.

[awesomeap88]

for some weird reason, internet explorer keeps freezing when i go to look through their videos so someone else may have to go and take a look for it. in the meantime, there is this article on their website about the issue.

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/sunr...n-gay-partners

[justbeingme]

Originally Posted by smilealways

"As such we would not see it as appropriate for couples in a same-sex relationship to attend an event such as a school formal,"

what a rude thing to say

true dat

[CrimsonThunder]

Originally Posted by Bev26

Unfortunately as its a private school nothing any government body says makes any difference, the decision must come from the inside...from Catholic school executives but i can see them caving in to a consensus of the public...from what i know religious pivate schools don't like negative images like discrimaniation being projected into the community.

Its good news to see issues like this going on the front page and onto the newsreels so that people recognise that discimination like this and others cannot be tolerated... especially in Australia.

Any religion always has a negative image to it.

Thinking back to my own high school (private catholic college) we never had anything banning same sex people. They didn't mention it for our formal either, I don't think there was any real out gay people anyway. And we didn't take dates as such we just went in groups of friends.