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Gay and sexually active students can’t offer ‘Christian leadership’, says Presbyterian church
By Lachlan Abbott and Nicole Precel
An elite Victorian private school says it is moving with the times but needs to consider its overarching religious ethos, as the church that oversees it seeks to bar students who have premarital sex or are gay from becoming school captains.
The Presbyterian Church of Australia, which guides Scotch College in Melbourne’s east, has told a review of Australia’s discrimination laws that these students “would not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling Christian living”.
The church’s rejection of LGBTQ school captains was made in response to an example from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) inquiry, which the federal government established to review Australia’s religious exemptions for schools in its first formal step toward drafting religious discrimination laws. It also called for the right to consider the former three factors when selecting school staff.
Islamic, Jewish, Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist and Uniting Church groups also made submissions to the commission’s consultation paper, which proposes banning religious schools from discrimination against students based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status, or pregnancy.
In a letter to parents on Friday, Scotch College chairman Alex Sloan said organisations’ beliefs were often tested during times of “unprecedented change”.
“Certainly education is far from immune to this scrutiny, and it is timely for the Scotch community to take stock,” Sloan wrote.
He said Scotch would continue to reflect values of respect, tolerance and inclusion.
“As the times potentially become more turbulent, the more important it is to assess that our responses are consistent with the ethos and values that have served us so well to date, while keeping pace with our evolving world.”
Former Scotch College student Andrew Purvis, 52, told The Age he was bullied when he attended the school due to his “perceived sexuality”, and his ordeal led to decades of mental health damage.
Purvis, who is gay, said he had heard the school had made minor positive changes, but given the submission from the church, he questioned “whether the school is really a safe space for gay students”.
Scotch College in HawthornCredit: Joe Armao
“My gut reaction to this was, ‘All the poor students that are there today’,” said Purvis, who did his VCE in 1988.
The Victorian wing of the Presbyterian Church of Australia operates five schools in the state, including Scotch College and Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC).
PLC chairman Mark Chew said in a letter to the school community that “contrary to what has been portrayed in the media”, the school maintained its priority of providing a safe and inclusive environment for all within its community, “which reflects the imprint of God’s grace for all students and staff”.
“Consequently, every student is nurtured and encouraged to serve and take on positions of leadership without discrimination as to where they are on their personal journey,” he wrote.
‘Leadership and the qualities of leadership are not a function of people’s sexual orientation.’
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told Channel Nine on Friday that the government was trying to ensure religious Australians were protected, but was uncomfortable a church group wanted to exclude gay students or those having premarital sex from school captaincy.
“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 – and that should apply here as well,” he said.
“It’s really important that we do not see – as we walk down this road – discrimination against children.”
The Presbyterian Church of Victoria made a separate submission to the review and did not explicitly object to LGBTQ students becoming school captains, but rejected the review’s proposal barring discrimination against gay students. The church is also linked to Belgrave Heights Christian School, St Andrews Christian College in Wantirna South, and King’s College in Warrnambool.
Catholic Education Commission of Victoria executive director Jim Miles said a parent’s right to choose a school that reflected their values and beliefs was at the heart of the debate.
“These values and beliefs are not ‘add-ons’. They permeate all dimensions of the Catholic school community, supporting young people in their spiritual development and fostering a contribution to society,” Miles said.
“Catholic schools should have the ability to employ and teach according to their faith, while operating with deep care and respect for all students and staff, nurturing and supporting them on their life journeys.”
Victorian Student Representative Council member Oak, who is 15 and a proud member of the LGBTQ community, said schools should be safe spaces for every child, regardless of sexual orientation, relationship status or gender identity.
Oak, 15, is a member of the Victorian Student Representative Council and a proud member of the LGBTQ community.
“Education should be considered a basic human right, so why should these factors be a barrier to access for students?” Oak, who requested his surname not be used, said.
He said there were diverse people within religions, which is why religious schools shouldn’t have exemptions, and added it could be a “scary thing to hear” that students could be discriminated against in a space that’s supposed to be supportive.
“It’s OK to be yourself. Take pride in yourself and stay safe.”
Equality Australia legal director Ghassan Kassisieh said students shouldn’t be stripped of leadership opportunities for being LGBTQ because it could “set them back for life”.
The Presbyterian Church says its schools should be free to stop gay students from becoming school captains.
In terms of the church’s broader submission, Kassisieh said states like Victoria – where religious schools can hire people of the same faith when the job requires it, but cannot discriminate based on a candidate’s sexuality or gender – had struck the balance for “fair and reasonable laws”.
The Islamic Council of Victoria said in its submission that Islamic schools should be able to teach students what Islam teaches on gender identity and sexual orientation “without reservation”, and take action against both staff and students if their conduct is “at conflict” with these teachings.
“This does not mean that schools operate indifferently to the psychological wellbeing of staff and students. It is essential that students are not exposed to avoidable harms at school,” the submission reads.
The council says Islamic schools should be allowed to preference staff based on religion in the hiring process, as well as terminating staff who undermine the “ethos” of a school.
It also argues Islamic schools should be able to act against a staff member who supports an LGBTQ student or attends a Pride rally because it undermines a school’s religious ethos.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, one-third of students and almost two in five staff members were enrolled or employed in non-government schools, most of which are religiously affiliated as part of the Catholic or independent school system.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates the largest Protestant education system in the world and has more than 16,000 students in schools across Australia. It argues the inability to discriminate against students based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationships status, or pregnancy would prevent its “faith community from acting authentically”, and would be a restriction on the freedom to practice religion.
The church also wants to be able to preference staff based on their religion when hiring, arguing that without these measures it would “make it impossible to operate Seventh-day Adventist schools authentically in conformity to our faith”.
Uniting Church Australia, which represents 12 schools in Victoria and 48 across the country – including Geelong College, Wesley College and Ballarat Clarendon College – largely supports the ALRC’s proposal and says students should not be discriminated against. But it notes discrimination against prospective students on the basis of their gender for single-sex schools is still possible.
The Australian Council of Jewish Schools, representing 18 independent schools with about 10,000 students, holds varied views on the ALRC’s proposal. Some schools have stated they would need to close if they weren’t allowed to perform student-based gender-specific activities, preference same-gender teachers, have enrolment preferencing and religious practices and education.
“It is fundamental to Judaism … that each school maintain the ability to preserve the character of their school by the preferencing and or restricting enrolment of students as per their criteria. We ask the commission to consider an exemption specifically on this matter,” it says.
The Independent Education Union (IEU) said a minority of intolerant employers had been able to bully and dismiss hundreds of the union’s members for decades.
“This discriminatory conduct included the dismissal of LGBTQ members, those who were living apart from their partners, members who used non-approved methods of IVF and others who simply sought a dialogue with their church over its religious teachings and moral values,” the union said in a statement.
“The IEU is concerned about allowing religious schools to preference staff of their own religion as well as the ALRC’s suggestion to create new laws which would allow employers to discipline and dismiss employees who ‘actively undermine the ethos of the [religious educational] institution’.”
Equality Australia cited the example of Ballarat woman Rachel Colvin, a committed Christian and mother of three married to a man, who was dismissed in 2019 from a non-denominational Christian school because she refused to agree to and abide by a statement of faith that marriage “can only be between a male and a female”.
Colvin offered to teach in accordance with the schools’ beliefs but was still forced to resign. The matter went to VCAT and was settled in 2020.
With Ashleigh McMillan
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