Homo a No Go?

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/push-to-end-expulsion-of-gay-students-20130827-2soet.html

 (Smd, 2011)

Why do so many people believe that discriminating against homosexuals is okay? Is it not discriminative if a person negatively comments on your race, culture, religion, gender or even socioeconomic status! In this case, judgmental comments against gays or lesbians is also definitely a discriminative act.

Fortunately, Australian laws such as the Anti-discrimination Act 1977 are put forward to render unlawful racial, sex and other types of discrimination in certain circumstances and to promote equality of opportunity between all persons (Legislation, 2013).

However, Anti-Discrimination laws don’t apply to some private schools which has raised a vast issue in relation to discrimination against homosexual students in Australian private schooling (Tovey, 2013). Just recently, this matter has been taken into consideration in articles from the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. For instance,  the article ‘Push to end expulsion of gay students’ published on the 28^th of August by Josephine Tovey, has put forward the immoral concern of controversial laws allowing private schools to expel students if they are found to be homosexual (Tovey, 2013). This has had ongoing debates and disputes on wanting the members of the parliament to end this issue immediately (Tovey, 2013).  

Moreover, throughout the article Tovey further outlines the conflicting views of the issue, displaying MP Mr Greenwich disagreement on the current discrimination against homosexuals in private schools (Tovey, 2013). He argues that students’ sexuality should not be a problem within private educational facilities as students should be treated fairly.

The systematic failure of private school systems in protecting students with sexual orientations and leaving the individual falling as a victim to discrimination by a school will affect their self-confidence, identity and worth (Telljohann and Price, 1993). Human identity is one of the most important aspects that inform a sense of who a person is, where one comes from, and what one’s place in the world is (Telljohann and Price, 1993). Thus, losing one’s self-identity will extremely disrupt their education and lower their academic achievement.

Unfortunately, Ian Baker, the executive director of the NSW Catholic Education Commission, does not see these negative impacts of expelling students due to their sexual orientation (Tovey, 2013). He debates that by expelling homosexual students’ from a religious community plays a positive role in protecting the rights of the parents of the student. It was also argued that by abolishing such power they were losing their rights to decide who they enrolled (Tovey, 2013).

Society creates stereotypes and places meaning and attitudes towards them (Wadham, Pudsey and Boyd, 2007).  Thus, it is possible for private school executives to reverse this situation. As Baker’s so called ‘power’ shouldn’t be used to discriminate but rather understand the fact that creating these stereotypes of homosexuals not belonging in a religious community is offensive.  

This issue in my perspective is quite disappointing as one’s sexual orientation should not be used to deprive a student from education. I believe that this issue should be dealt with immediately as the individual is not doing any harm towards the school and are as equal as every other student in terms of academic achievement. It may seem acceptable for private religious schools to reject homosexual students but these schools should think of it in the terms of the student contributing their knowledge to their school as a bonus. 

Legislation, 2013. Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 No 48. 4th ed. NSW: Government.

Smd. 2011. Why do state school parents want to go private?. [online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/why-do-state-school-parents-want-to-go-private-20110916-1kdth.html [Accessed: 20 Oct 2013].

Telljohann, S. and Price, J. 1993. A qualitative examination of adolescent homosexuals' life experiences: Ramifications for secondary school personnel. Journal of Homosexuality, 26 (1), pp. 41--56.

Tovey, J. 2013. Push to end expulsion of gay students. [online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/push-to-end-expulsion-of-gay-students-20130827-2soet.html [Accessed: Sep 2013].

Wadham, B., Pudsey, J. and Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Aust.