Citipointe Christian College, which reached the headlines for its “controversial” enrollment contract in February, has become the subject of discrimination complaints filed with the Queensland Human Rights Commission.
Key points:
- The university, in south-east Brisbane, updated its enrollment contract in January
- He asked families to accept that their children identify themselves as their gender by birth or face exclusion from school.
- Families are now submitting complaints to the Queensland Human Rights Commission
The University of Brisbane required parents to sign a contract at the beginning of the school year that denounced homosexuality and stipulated that students could only enroll on the basis of their “biological sex”.
The contract included a “declaration of faith” describing homosexual acts as “immoral,” comparing them to acts of bestiality, incest, and pedophilia.
The matter was referred to the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board before the school withdrew the contract and principal Brian Mulheran resigned in March.
Parents of school alumni said they are taking legal action today to prevent further discrimination in Citipointe and other Australian schools on the grounds of sexuality and gender identity.
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Elise Myers ’queer daughter attended Citipointe Christian College and will be one of five people to file a discrimination complaint.
“The deepest problem is to establish policies and procedures so that this does not happen again and so that we create a safe and inclusive environment for all students,” Ms Myers said.
Ms Myers, who currently has two more children at school, said the “unthinkable” contract had been an “affront” to her family.
“It was a shock, we felt pretty anxious,” he said.
“If you think about our core values when it comes to sending our children to a Christian school, we think about these great values of love and respect, equality, justice, and obviously this kind of discrimination doesn’t fit anywhere.” .
Former student Felicity Myers and her mother Elise Myers, who still have two children at school. (ABC News: Louisa Rebgetz)
Faced with this, Ms Myers said it had been “difficult” to keep her children enrolled in school.
“It would also be a difficult decision to leave because they have been there for a few years,” he said.
“We have decided to stay and see if the school is responding to the changes we hope to make.”
“This damage is real and has real impacts”
LGBTI + Legal Service employer and lawyer Matilda Alexander said the enrollment agreement was a breach of Queensland’s anti-discrimination laws and caused “serious harm” to students.
“We want to send a strong signal to schools and the community that this kind of behavior is wrong and has consequences for the law,” he said.
“We are looking for an inclusive policy, as we have seen in other Queensland religious schools, that proactively offers to treat students equally and fairly, and in a way that will benefit their mental health because we have seen it when doing this wrong causes a great evil. “
Matilda Alexander of Queensland LGBTI + Legal Service (ABC News: Louisa Rebgetz)
Ms Alexander said inclusive school policies that take into account changes in a student’s name, uniform and pronouns save lives.
“Children commit suicide because of discrimination and denial of their gender identity and sexuality,” she said.
“So this damage is real and has real impacts, and that’s what our customers want to address today.”
Ms Alexander said there could be more complaints to be made in the coming weeks.
Janina Leo and her former student daughter Emmey Leo, who take part in the action. (ABC News: Louisa Rebgetz)
Alumni want federal intervention
Speaking to the Queensland Parliament today, Ms Myers said she would like the Citipointe school to formally recognize and implement such “proactive” policies.
Ms Alexander said they also called on the Albanian government to implement stronger human rights protections at the federal level.
“We are pleased that there are strong legal protections in Queensland that also prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, sexuality, gender identity, race and other factors, according to the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act,” he said.
“We would like to see a federal human rights law and federal human rights protections against discrimination on the grounds of religion, sexuality and gender identity, as they are protected in Queensland.”
Ms Alexander said public and private schools were equally protected by the anti-discrimination laws in Queensland.
“This equality [at a federal level] it is something we need to ensure that all children are protected, “he said.
Citipointe Christian College declined to comment.
Posted 1 hour, 1 hour ago Thu, May 26, 2022 at 4:42 am, updated 1 hour, 1 hour ago, Thu, May 26, 2022 at 5:08 AM