The Australian Christian Lobby‘s Victorian branch has delivered a petition containing more than 16,700 signatures protesting the State Government’s continued use of the controversial Safe Schools program.
ACL’s Victorian director Dan Flynn and Melbourne mother Maria Hill delivered the petition – containing 16,675 signatures – to the office of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday. They also delivered what the ACL said was documentary evidence that the State Government was continue to promote “extreme concepts”.
The petition calls on the Premier to give back parents the right to have their children to opt out of the program which it describes as “encouraging cross dressing, teaching kids that their gender is ‘fluid’ and promoting instruction in chest binding (so that girls can appear as boys)”.
Mr Flynn said that unless the Andrews Government “shows a quick willingness to respond to these parental concerns by removing ‘Safe Schools’ from the classroom”, voters would be looking to support parties that are promising to scrap it at the upcoming state election.
“Parents are outraged that the Victorian Government continues to teach that childrens’ gender is fluid under the cover of a so-called anti-bullying program,” he said. “The concern is heightened now as the government has made it clear that ‘Safe Schools’ will be compulsory for all high school students this year.”
He urged concerned parents to contact the Premier directly to insist on the right to take their children out of the program.
The Herald Sun quoted Education Minister James Merlino saying that the government would continue to deliver the Safe Schools program with every public school to participate by the end of the year.
“Safe Schools help schools and students understand and respect that people should not be discriminated against for any reason – including gender and sexual diversity,” he told the newspaper.
