Your School
Your school principal, teachers and all staff should respect, value and understand children and young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBTIQ+).
Homophobic and transphobic bullying must be addressed, with student well-being at the forefront of decision-making.
The Queensland Department of Education and Training has an Inclusive Education policy statement that states that all school sectors must provide all students with access to high-quality schooling that is free from discrimination.
If your school is not supporting your family and/or your child, you should first contact the school principal. If you are still concerned, you should contact your Department of Education regional office for help and advice.
In 2008, all Australian Education Ministers committed to the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. … all governments and all school sectors must provide all students with access to high quality schooling that is free from discrimination based on gender, language, sexual orientation, pregnancy, culture, ethnicity, religion, health or disability, socio-economic background or geographic location.
Start a parent support group
It might be easy to imagine, as a student or as a family member, that you are alone. In fact, “11 in 100 Australians are of diverse sexual orientation, sex or gender identity” (Human Rights Commission). This means that about three students in a school class of 28, and eleven teachers in every 100, might identify as LGBTIQ+. The number of same-sex couple families is also increasing.
If you and your child have “come out”, you may find other parents in your school to have a conversation with. You could form a support group that could offer help and advice to the school principal, as well as to other families.
If you and your child have “come out”, you may find other parents in your school to have a conversation with. You could form a support group that could offer help and advice to the school principal, as well as to other families.
The website of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has lots of resources. These include the booklet Keeping Families Together which has information and advice for parents of LGBTIQ children. There are shorter documents in Arabic, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog and Chinese (Mandarin) on their Readings page.