<
https://theconversation.com/before-the-1980s-australian-teachers-could-be-banned-for-being-gay-a-new-report-wants-to-protect-them-at-religious-schools-too-216276>
"In 1976, Greg Weir was banned from teaching by the Queensland government
because he was gay – and was then denied employment in New South Wales and
Victoria for the same reason. Two years earlier, in 1974, New South Wales
trainee teacher Penny Short was declared “medically unfit” to teach after
publishing a lesbian poem.
This kind of discrimination in public schools has been outlawed, thanks (in
part) to the activism of teachers like Weir and Short. From the 1980s,
anti-discrimination laws made overt discrimination illegal in public schools.
The exemptions to these laws for religious organisations in some states,
however, allow discrimination to continue.
Today, in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia,
teachers in religious private schools can still lose their jobs if they are
gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer, or if they are transgender or gender diverse.
In New South Wales, nonreligious private schools also have the right to
discriminate.
This week’s landmark Australian Law Reform Commission report on religious
education institutions and discrimination has called for laws to be clarified,
so religious schools nationwide can’t fire or refuse to hire teachers on the
basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or
pregnancy.
In our research on the histories of LGBTQ+ teacher employment, we have come
across multiple, publicly known controversial sackings in the 1970s, as well as
the more insidious practices of moving out (or outed) gay and lesbian teachers
to administrative roles, away from students.
The several cases brought to the attention of activists and the media might
only be the tip of the iceberg of homophobic discrimination in that period.
These teachers’ stories can help us understand why hostility to LGBTQ+ teachers
remains such an entrenched problem today. And they allow us to appreciate the
brave ways queer teachers have campaigned to protect themselves from
discrimination."
Cheers,
**** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
