Support for student homophobia fight

An online anti-homophobia campaign started this month by current and former students of a private Perth girls school has grown to almost 600 members.

The online campaign was started on social media site Facebook after a group of students claim Perth’s St Mary’s Anglican Girls School has been preventing students taking their same-sex partner to the school formal.

The group says it now wants to raise awareness of the issue of prejudice against same-sex attracted students right across Australia.

“All children and teenagers should be protected, encouraged and supported in their school environments regardless of gender, sexuality, race or religion,” the Facebook group states.

The Facebook group was started by 24-year-old Kia Groom who graduated from the St Mary’s in 2003 and told News Limited during her time the school tried to “nip lesbian behaviour in the bud”.

Groom said gay rights had been raised many times at the school but each year the school had refused to let students take their same-sex partner to the formal.

News Limited reported the school had declined to comment on the matter.

The issue of students being prevented from taking same-sex partners to school formals is certainly not a new one.

Melbourne students Hannah Williams and Savannah Supski hit the news last year when they were told they could not attend a school formal together when students at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar.

Mississippi lesbian teen Constance McMillan made international headlines in 2010 when her prom was cancelled by her school when she asked to take her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. The case went to court and a judge ruled McMillan’s rights had been violated.