Can a private school kick you out for being gay

At best, this is likely to be earlysince the Religious Discrimination Bill seems destined to head to a Senate inquiry. It applies to public and private elementary schools, secondary schools, school districts, colleges, and universities.

Discrimination Against LGBTQ Students

Despite this, the federal government has continually kicked the can down the road on this reform. Discrimination against LGBTQ+ students in schools can take many forms, including bullying and using incorrect names or pronouns. The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

No matter how you cut it, the Religious Discrimination Bill permits far too much harm in the name of religion. Their concern is well founded. It is a test not seen in any other Australian discrimination laws. Read more: Third time lucky?

For instance, a non-supportive religious school may teach that gay couples should not be allowed to marry or have children. Religious schools can, today, expel kids just for being gay. The Religious Discrimination Bill is back, this time in its third iteration.

The Department of Education has stated that it interprets Title IX to cover discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Although some state and territory laws provide stronger protection for staff at religious schools, the bill overrides these laws.

A student who was in year 7 when this change was promised will have graduated from high school by the time it is implemented. These are situations in which discrimination is allowed. Read more: New religious discrimination bill will cause damage to Australian society that will be difficult to heal.

This comes some 30 months after the Commission was first asked to conduct an inquiry into this issue. In private schools, unless the school writes in a term that an expulsion hearing will be provided, a school may have no obligation to provide one prior to a student being kicked out suddenly.

It allows more, not less, discrimination by religious schools. What has changed in the latest draft of the religious discrimination bill? In Octoberthe Prime Minister promised to ban religious schools from expelling students on the basis of their sexuality.

Here’s your guide to understanding when, why and how private schools can say no to some students. However the bill also contains very wide exemptions. This can impact their mental health and goes against school rules and laws meant to protect students from unfair treatment.

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However, the third draft of the Bill has watered this down. This allows religious schools to hire and fire on the basis of any religious views, even where such views are irrelevant to the position in question. They could then discriminate against any staff and students who do not adhere to this belief — such as a teacher who marries their same-sex partner.

While many might not choose to do this and are supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, there have still been cases of non-supportive religious schools who have sacked teachers for being gay. More than three years later, these exemptions still remain.

It is such a low bar that religious schools can likely rely on it for almost everything they do. The school only needs to share publicly their policy on this. Even if other discrimination laws ban such statements being made, this bill overrides them.

An entirely new law will then need to be drafted and passed through parliament to change the Sex Discrimination Act exemptions. This means, for example, that an employer would not be able to sack someone on the basis they are Jewish, or Muslim.