Adam Bandt flies a rainbow flag appeal via Facebook

Greens MP Adam Bandt is asking for public money so that schools can fly rainbow flags.

Greens MP Adam Bandt wants schools to fly Rainbow flags.

Greens MP Adam Bandt is asking the public to donate money so schools can fly rainbow flags in support of young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and inter­sex people.

Mr Bandt posted a link on his Facebook page last week calling for funding for the initiative after the federal government ordered changes to the Safe Schools program. Safe Schools is an anti-bullying program that critics say was an attempt to push “queer gender theory” in the classroom.

The original program deliv­ered modules in both primary and secondary schools, but it has since been restricted to older students after a government review.

Mr Bandt said the appeal had received interest from students and parents in his electorate of Melbourne since its launch. “They are appalled by Malcolm Turnbull’s caving in to Tony ­Abbott’s conservative brotherhood and undermining the Safe Schools program,” he said.

“A number of schools in Melbourne participate in the program and I am hopeful they will get behind parents and students who want to raise the rainbow flag in support of Safe Schools.”

Senators and MP have an entitlement, within the limit of their office budget, to distribute flags including the national, Aborig­inal and Torres Strait Islander flags to organisations including schools and local councils.

A spokesman for Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann said Mr Bandt would not be permitted to use his office entitlement for a rainbow flag.

Burwood Girls High School, in Sydney’s inner west, has raised a rainbow flag every year since 2013.

The school, selected to partic­ipate in an anti-­homophobia pilot project in 2012-13, was mired in controversy last year over its decision to screen the documentary Gayby Baby.