Greens MP Adam Bandt has launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy schools rainbow gay pride flags in the wake of dramatic changes to the Safe Schools LGBTI anti-bullying program.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Bandt said: “Today Malcolm Turnbull disgracefully caved into the conservative brotherhood and gutted Safe Schools.”
“We’re working with parents & students from local schools in Melbourne to fly the rainbow flag at their school as a powerful symbol of support for LGBTIQ young people. Can you chip in to help make this happen?”
The post links to a Greens crowdfunding website which asks for donations of between $35 and $500.
On Friday, the Turnbull government announced changes to cut Safe Schools lesson content, restricting it to secondary schools, shifting the program to a government website, and removing all links to other material and sites. Students will also require parental consent to participate and schools will need parent-body consent before opting to use its materials.
Bandt told Guardian Australia young people coming to terms with their sexuality and identity were “hearing hate and slander” from conservative opponents of the Safe Schools program.
“By proudly raising a rainbow flag at their school, teachers, parents and students are showing LGBTIQ young people that they are supported, accepted and loved,” he said.
Bandt said he’d had a “good deal of interest” from students and parents across Melbourne who were appalled by the Safe Schools backdown.
“A number of schools in Melbourne participate in the program and I am hopeful that they will get behind parents and students who want to raise the rainbow flag in support of Safe Schools.”
Bandt went to Fitzroy high school on Monday and presented the school with a rainbow flag, which it will display in support of LGBTI young people.
Burwood Girls high school, in Sydney’s inner west, has raised a rainbow flag every year since 2013.
Principal Mia Kumar told Guardian Australia the reason Burwood Girls raises the flag is because it “celebrates diversity and we want to create a learning environment where all students feel valued and can achieve their best”.
The changes to Safe Schools came two days after one of parliament’s biggest opponents of the program, Queensland MP George Christensen, accused a professor linked to the anti-bullying program of being an advocate of paedophilia.
