In an ironic turnaround, the LGBTI lobby in Australia is proving to be a significant source of support for faith-based schools, including Christian schools.
In 2010, the government of Victoria rolled out the Safe Schools programme. The purpose of Safe Schools, according to official government speak, was to develop a mechanism to limit bullying within schools of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) students. This programme included professional development activities for school teachers accompanied by materials for the training of students to eliminate discrimination against LGBTI students.
Gay and communist
The Safe Schools programme was the brainchild of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. Its best-known advocate is Dr Roz Ward, a former faculty member at the university, who has been reported as declaring at a 2013 Marxism conference: ‘I not only teach people how to be gay, I teach them how to be gay and communist, so invite me to your school if you will.’
The Safe Schools programme expanded across other Australian states in 2013. Direct government encouragement and subtle group pressures were applied. By the beginning of 2018, 80% of government secondary schools in Victoria had adopted it, as had a number of independent schools. Around 550 schools across the nation had signed up, according to Internet reports.
In order to facilitate the engagement of the schools with the programme, the Victorian state government issued several documents, including a ‘Guide to Making Your School Safe and Inclusive for LGBTI Students’. The glossary of terms in this document indicates the breadth of emphasis of its contents, which deal with the following: Bisexual; Biphobia; Gay; Gender diverse; Gender identity; Heterosexism; Homophobia; Intersex; Intersexism; Lesbian; Same sex attracted; Sex; Sistergirls and Brotherboys; Transgender (also trans or trans*); Transphobia.
Increasing obstacles
Celebrations of the success of the Safe Schools programme have been evident across the LGBTI lobby in recent years. However, the programme has encountered increasing obstacles which cast doubt over its long-term future. Public opposition has been growing in intensity. In February 2016, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was handed an open letter signed by 14,100 Australians, outlining their concerns about the Safe Schools programme. The letter said that while bullying in schools needed to be addressed, the Safe Schools programme was silent on the most common forms (based on appearance, ability, ethnicity), and in fact it led to the bullying of students who did not support the programme’s political agenda.
Furthermore, concerns were raised about materials used for the programme, with claims that it encouraged young students to question or change their gender or sexuality, that it taught radical gender theory, and that students were being asked to role play same-sex relationships.
Parents vote with their feet
The Victorian state government has committed to expanding the Safe Schools programme to all government secondary schools by the end of 2018. However, parents are voting with their feet, with a clearly discernible flight of families from government schools to independent faith-based schools over the last five years.
A survey of ten leading Christian schools in the State of Victoria reveals that the growth of student numbers in the schools over the last five years has averaged around 34%. For example, Waverley Christian College grew from 1,328 students in 2012 to 1,867 students at the end of 2017. Hillcrest Christian College in Melbourne’s suburb of Clyde North saw its numbers grow by 29% in the same period and as a result has opened up a whole new primary school campus. Marymede Catholic College in the heavily migrant suburb of South Morang in Melbourne grew by 22% in the same period. Not only are Christian families sending their children to the schools, but also non-Christians are seeking the more conservative values of the Christian schools, as well as escaping from the euphemistically-named Safe Schools programme.
Other faiths
Schools of other faiths have similarly grown in the ‘Safe Schools’ era. A survey of eight Muslim schools in Victoria showed an average growth of 76% between 2012 and 2017. While some of this growth is due to increasing Muslim migration, much of it also reflects a search for more conservative values-based educational philosophies. Similarly, Mount Scopus Memorial College, a large Jewish school in Melbourne’s leafy suburb of Burwood, grew by almost 31% over the last five years, also benefiting from the flight from the Safe Schools programme.
It is ironic that faith-based schools have grown as a result of an LGBTI initiative. At the same time, one must not lose sight of the hundreds of thousands of students in government schools who are undergoing an ideological experiment that is pushed by the LGBTI lobby and facilitated by left-leaning governments in Australia.
