Australian Christian schools want the right to kick out LGBT students and staff
They claim being gay doesn't align with their religious views
By Steve Brown
Christian schools are trying to make it their right to kick out LGBT students and teachers as they don’t align with their religious views.
Adventist Schools Australia and Christian School Australia are hoping to rid their schools of people who identify in the LGBT+ community, in order to protect their “religious character”.
They also argued that they should still be allowed to receive government funding even if they kick out those who don’t follow their beliefs.
The schools say that allowing teachers to lead “double lives” and hide their sexuality in the school was not acceptable.
Both institutions want staff and students who are part of the LGBT+ community to be fired.
Australia recently passed a new law allowing gay couples to marry but these religious schools want a law to change the definition of “discrimination” by religious bodies to be changed to “differentiation”.
They say that by doing so they could “employ staff it determines reasonably necessary to protect its religious character”.
Last year, Craig Campbell was fired from his school when he revealed he was in a same-sex relationship.
He told Buzzfeed: “I was left a little bit in the dark for quite a while and it wasn’t until I got an email from the Teacher Registration Board saying that I had been removed from the current staff list that I knew.”