GAY TRUTH

While Ms. Beattie enjoyed her job, she knew being a lesbian didn't exactly fit the religious ethos of her workplace. She also knew that the longer she stayed, the harder it would get. She also lied on her application. The turning point came soon after she became pregnant through IVF with her lesbian partner. Sadly, she miscarried ; that's when she decided it was time to leave. So instead of repenting of her sin and deception and seeking grace from her Christian employer instead she chose to continue to live her immoral lifestyle and leave.  "I couldn't turn to anyone because I knew there would be questions: What support did I have at home? Do I have a husband? That's when I realised I couldn't conceal it anymore. The whole thing really ground me down, actually. It's hard to go to work and not be able to talk about your partner, or what you're doing on the weekends. I'm a very open person, so I was embarrassed telling my friends I had to li...

Two weeks ago Daniel Andrews' Labor Government launched an extraordinary attack on religious freedom in Victorian Christian schools and churches. On 30 August the Equal Opportunity Amendment (Religious Exceptions) Bill 2016 was introduced. If passed this Bill would restrict the ability of religious bodies, charities, schools and educational institutions to employ staff according to their faith and ethos. Peter Kentley, Executive Director of the Christian Federation based in Melbourne warns,"on Wednesday afternoon this week, the Victorian State Government will debate a bill to deny religious institutions exceptions from anti-discrimination law. ... This is a direct attack on religious freedom that will sooner or later go national if it gets through in Victoria." The stakes couldn't be higher, reports Dan Flynn, the Victorian Director of the Australian Christian Lobby. He writes "This Bill would be the end of Christian schooling as we know it." Christi...

Over 30 Qld schools have opted in to use the resources, including 5 primary schools and 7 P-12 schools , despite our Education Minister assuring the Parliament that the resources would only be made available to secondary schools . I have commenced a Qld Parliament petition – not calling for the program to be scrapped – but for an inquiry into the appropriateness of the materials and for the Qld schools who are using the resources to be made public as in other states, so that parents can know what their children will be being taught. Would you be happy to circulate the petition to your church folk for their consideration? It is a Qld Government epetition so has no link to any organisation or political party.  The link is here http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petition?PetNum=2552     Thank you very much for your consideration of this. I believe that God would want us to do everything we can to protect the innocence of our chi...

“Kids from same-sex families fare as well as peers – or better” claims the heading of an  article  by an Australian academic repeated in the  New York Times ,  Washington Post , the  Guardian  and many other media outlets this week. Children with same-sex attracted parents are “doing well in terms of their overall health”, their “families are getting along really well”, says Simon Crouch. Actually, they are doing “better” than average on those points, but they do “experience stigma”, which explains any “lower scores” on certain measures. So we have to get rid of that stigma somehow… It’s a familiar story, and if this one seems particularly  deja vu  it is because we heard it all a year ago, when interim results from the Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families (ACHESS) were published with similar upbeat headlines. Dr Crouch, himself an  openly  homosexual man with twin boys aged about 5, and his University of Melbourne ...

WHEN they first moved in together, Mike* and his partner, who were both Catholic school teachers in Sydney , took some unusual steps to conceal their sexuality.  ''We set up our house with two bedrooms so if any colleagues came over we could pretend we were just flatmates,'' he said. Mike now works in an independent school, where he is open with staff, though not students, about his sexuality. His partner, who still works in the Catholic system, is more guarded. ''He's not able to take a day off work if I am sick. He has to be very guarded as to who he reveals his lifestyle to.'' Fairfax Media spoke to several gay Catholic school teachers in NSW and Victoria about the effect of exemptions for religious organisations from anti-discrimination laws. All said they hid their sexuality to varying degrees for fear of how it would affect their careers. Another teacher, Rob*, described the situation as a ''don't ask, don't tell kind of...

Students at 12 NSW high schools are being taught it is wrong and " heterosexist " to regard heterosexuality as the norm for human relationships. The "Proud Schools" pilot program , implemented in 12 government schools in Sydney and the Hunter, is designed to stamp out "homophobia, transphobia (fear of transsexuals) and heterosexism". Teachers are given professional development to learn to identify and stamp out any instances of "heterosexist" language in the playground, such as "that's so gay". But at least 10 Liberal MPs are "extremely concerned" about the program, and will complain to Education Minister Adrian Piccoli this week. The program defines "heterosexism" as the practice of "positioning heterosexuality as the norm for human relationship," according to the Proud Schools Consultation Report. "It involves ignoring, making invisible or discriminating against non-heterosexual people, the...

A board member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) has resigned less than 48 hours after Australian media reported that he had signed a document supporting true marriage. Professor Kuruvilla George, who is also Victoria’s deputy chief psychiatrist, signed a pro-marriage submission to a Senate inquiry on the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010 in March. (There are currently three bills to change the legal definition of marriage before Australian parliament, which are the subject of two separate inquiries). Professor Kuruvilla George When it was revealed on Sunday by various newspapers that Professor George had been one of a group of 150 medical professionals who submitted to the inquiry that “the evidence is clear that children who grow up in a family with a mother and father do better in all parameters than children without,” there were immediate calls for his resignation. Kerryn Phelps , the former national president of the Austral...