School bans 7-year-old girl from talking about her gay dads

A seven-year-old girl has been pulled out of her private school in Mandurah, Western Australia after school authorities banned her from talking about her gay dad, reports the Mandurah Mail.

When the young pupil started talking about Tony Abbott, gay marriage and her dad’s relationship, “she was shut down by her teacher and then the teacher had to explain to the class what ‘gay’ is”, said her father Brendan.

Brendan – who has chosen to jeep the family’s surname anonymous – eventually decided to withdraw his daughter from Foundation Christian College after he was called in for a meeting with the school.

“I was told that they don’t promote ‘gay’ at the school and [my daughter[ was unable to talk about my life between [my partner] and me and general stuff about what a kid talks about with her parents,” he said.

He added because it was hard to explain the restrictions to a kid, he and his partner were “forced” to tell their daughter “that she wasn’t allowed to talk about [them] at all.”

Brendan also says that the school principal, Andrew Newhouse, told him: “If we knew you were gay at the interview you would never have got in this school.”

Newhouse has since confirmed that children of same-sex parents will not be allowed to enroll at the Christian faith school.

He has defended the school’s decision and its “firm” view that “families have a mother and father”, saying in a statement: “The Board has a clearly enunciated Christian world view which all parents are made aware of before enrolment is confirmed.”

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