Religious schools fight for right to continue to discriminate against school teachers on sexuality grounds

Reforms to national anti-discrimination laws could cause a massive change in SA, removing religious schools’ right to discriminate against gay teachers.

Church groups have rallied against planned national laws to ban discrimination against gay teachers.

Under state law, religious schools in South Australia are allowed an exemption so they can select teachers who agree with their beliefs, but that perk is under threat in Canberra.

In a submission to a federal inquiry into the issue, the Association of Independent Schools has argued the SA model should be kept.

Chief executive Anne Dunstan said the planned changes were “strongly opposed”.

“These (SA) provisions enable independent schools to lawfully discriminate in employment or engagement, subject to meeting specific conditions,” she said.

The federal government has tasked the Australian Law Reform Commission to advise on law changes to ban discrimination against students or staff for their sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital, relationship or pregnancy status.

The sole concession would be core staff hirings, which would allow schools to discriminate only when hiring who would run religious classes as part of their workload.

It comes as the Presbyterian church, which runs several schools across Australia, told the review students who are “actively” gay or having unmarried straight sex should not be school captains

The church, which runs 20 schools nationally educating thousands of students, argues those students would “not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling of Christian living”.

It also wants to retain the right to discriminate against staff who are unmarried, gay or gender diverse if they do not “live out the whole Christian faith consistently”.

SA law – supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission – currently allows schools to discriminate against staff but not students.

The legal reforms are aimed at protecting students and teachers within the LGBTQIA+ community – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual.

In SA the discrimination option is not used by a majority of church groups or their schools.

Ms Dunstan said the option to ban was “not considered by a number of member schools to be ideal”.

The inquiry’s proposed option is a compromise that means only teachers hired by schools to engage in religious education could continue to be discriminated against.

At the inquiry, SA Catholic schools are represented by the National Catholic Education Commission.

In a submission by an unnamed author, the commission attacks the basis of the inquiry.

“The paper seems to approach religious schools as inherently discriminatory, and religious beliefs and teachings, especially about sexuality and gender, as harmful,” the submission states.

“The NCEC categorically rejects the implication that the teaching of Catholic doctrines and beliefs regarding sex and sexual orientation is harmful to students.

“Parents who disagree with Catholic teaching on sex and sexual orientation are not required to send their children to Catholic schools and are free to remove their children from Catholic schools should they so wish.”

The submission denies Catholic schools exclude LGBTQ+ students.

But schools should be able to select staff: “Catholic schools must be able also to teach and operate in accordance with their beliefs, including their beliefs about respect for life, the nature of marriage, sexuality and gender”.

Islamic Society of South Australia President Ahmed Zeikra supported the right of schools to select Islamic teachers.

“Islamic beliefs about modesty, the role of sexuality in one’s life, marriage and gender are matters of religion that cannot be forcibly changed by laws,” he wrote.