Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association
AbbreviationGaLTaS
Formation1991
Founded atNew South Wales
Dissolved1998 (1998)
TypeNGO
PurposeActivist and support organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and transgender students and teachers.
HeadquartersSydney
Location
Co-convenors
Derek Williams
Jacqui Griffin

The Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association (GaLTaS) was an Australian LGBT organisation active from 1991 to 1998 that was established during a wave of gay gang murders to publicise widespread problems of anti-gay bullying and violence in Australian schools, as well as to offer support and a path to redress for its victims.[1][2] It was founded by gay activist Derek Williams, a New Zealand born teacher at Randwick Boys High School[3][4] and Jennifer Glass, an 18-year-old lesbian New South Wales high school student.[5] A controversial attempt to set up a similar support organisation 'GAYTAS' in 1978 had failed, with same-sex relationships at that stage still a criminal offence in New South Wales until law repeal in 1984.[6] However, GaLTaS survived after LGBT+ students themselves spoke openly to both LGBT+ and mainstream media.[7][8][9] The organisation was registered as an Australian Incorporated Society, and was managed by a committee elected at each AGM, headed by two co-convenors. Parents were invited to all meetings, both individually and through a working association with PFLAG. Williams was subsequently six times re-elected its male co-convenor, and after the resignation of Glass, lawyer Jacqui Griffin became female co-convenor for the major part of GaLTaS’ significant activism.[10]

Background

The impetus to set up GaLTaS had reached a crucial point following the murder convictions and 18-year prison sentences handed down in 1990 to 8 students (the “Alexandria Eight”) from Sydney's Cleveland Street High School and a North Shore Catholic School for the gay-related killing of 33-year-old New Zealander Richard Johnson. Another group of 30 youths aged 12-18 (the "Bondi Boys") were active in throwing gay men to their deaths off the cliffs of Marks Park, Tamarama (colloquially euphemised as "cliff jumping"). As many as 88 men were killed, including Scott Johnson, Ross Warren and John Russell, with their deaths initially dismissed as “suicide”, “accident” or otherwise “not suspicious”.[11][12][13][14] Amid a spate of such attacks,[15] gay Social Science teacher Wayne Tonks was also brutally murdered by two 16-year-old students from Cleveland Street High School after he had received threats at the school and had his Artarmon flat ransacked. Aside from the two who killed him, Tonks had previously taught three of the boys eventually convicted of Richard Johnson's murder.[12][16] By 2023, there were still "50 to 100 persons of interest at least known" to NSW Police.[17]

Political response

In February 1993, Education Minister Virginia Chadwick agreed to a meeting with GaLTaS at the New South Wales Parliament led by Derek Williams with lobbyist Carole Ruthchild and some of the students being subjected to homophobic victimisation and violence at their school.[18] Following an interview with Chadwick and Williams by Quentin Dempster on the 7:30 Report, Chadwick announced School Anti-discrimination Grievance Procedures for Students,[19] that provided a means for LGBT+ students to achieve redress and complete their education.[20] This was expanded and re-issued in 1995 to incorporate amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act.[21] These measures were also intended to reverse the escalation of ubiquitous homophobic student invective into serious crime such as assault and homicide, that had life-changing consequences both for perpetrators and their victims.[22]

The SchoolWatch Report

In March 1993, GaLTaS was awarded a Federal National Youth Grant of $30,000 (=c.$68,400 equivalent in 2023)[23] by the Government of Australia[24] to establish a toll-free telephone hotline for gay and lesbian student victims of homophobic harassment and violence in schools. More than 500 calls were taken by specially trained counsellors, and the research was compiled by GaLTaS co-convenor Jacqui Griffin[25][26] for inclusion in The SchoolWatch Report : A Study Into Anti-Lesbian and Anti-Gay Harassment and Violence in Australian Schools,[27] launched in 1995 at Randwick Boys High School by Virginia Chadwick.[28]

Following the launch of Griffin’s SchoolWatch Report, she and Williams continued to work with Chadwick[29] alongside the New South Wales Department of Education, the Board of Studies, the New South Wales Parents and Citizens Association,[30] the New South Wales Anti-discrimination Board and the NSW Police Gay Liaison Officer[31] to address ongoing issues of school bullying,[32] suicidal ideation, suicide among LGBT youth[33] and homicide by students,[34][35][36]via workshops,[20][37] teacher training and books in schools programmes.[38][39]

After the defeat of the NSW Liberal Party by Labor at the 1995 New South Wales state election, Chadwick was succeeded as Education Minister by John Aquilina, who later abruptly shelved implementation of her reforms.[40]

In February 1997, as GaLTaS delegate, Williams addressed a Parliament of Australia forum on youth suicide convened by then Prime Minister, John Howard,[41][42] working with Heather Horntvedt who represented PFLAG[43] in her address to the forum.

Media representation

GaLTaS’ activism on behalf of students was widely reported in both LGBT+ and largely sympathetic mainstream news mastheads as well as in television documentaries, and this helped bring the plight of LGBT+ students into public focus. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Attitude program[44][45] and Channel 9's 60 Minutes broadcast television documentaries covering GaLTaS' endeavours to keep LGBT+ students at school. In 1992, Derek Williams represented GaLTaS as a guest on the Nine Network's TV series Sex[46][4] episode "Homosexuality", hosted by Australian actress Sophie Lee with Australian Medical Association (AMA) President, Dr Kerryn Phelps as medical reporter.[47] The episode was a televised dinner at the Nine Network studios, together with Festival of Light politician and outspoken LGBT+ rights opponent, Fred Nile, as well as representatives from the Parents and Citizens (P&C) and the AMA.[48] Williams and Phelps were subsequently interviewed together by Liz Hayes on the Today Show concerning ongoing issues of school-based homophobia.

Breach of Duty of Care lawsuits

From May 1993, Derek Williams began to call on the NSW parliament to remove private schools' LGBT+ related exemptions from the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act 1977,[49] and from April 1997, GaLTaS began representing LGBT+ students suing their schools in a number of landmark cases[50][51] alleging breach of duty of care by the Catholic Education Office (CEO) and the New South Wales Department of School Education, that were eventually settled out of court under non-disclosure agreements.

In 1997, assisted by GaLTaS with Contingent Fee legal representation by Carters Law Firm,[52] at age 13, Christopher Tsakalos became the youngest student ever to sue his school[53][54] for anti-gay vilification and bullying.[55][56] Christopher and his mother Vicky Tsakalos[53] approached Williams about homophobic bullying that had caused him to change school several times, ending at Cranebrook High School in Sydney's West. With parental agreement, Nine Network's 60 Minutes programme broadcast the documentary Pride and Prejudice - Chris[57][56] interviewing Williams, Christopher and Vicky Tsakalos, showing students at Cranebrook High School yelling homophobic abuse across the school playground followed by an interview with the headmistress.[58] The story was taken up in Australia's major mastheads, both nationally and internationally,[59][60][61] and the Tsakalos case was raised by Williams in his address to the Australian Parliament on 28 February 1997.[41]

Also in 1997, again assisted by GaLTaS and Carter’s Law Firm, gay student James Brilley sued Marcellin College Randwick for breach of duty of care and anti-gay vilification. After collapsing at his school as a result of his experience, Brilley had spent 4 months in psychiatric care at the Caritas Psychiatric Unit. Despite Catholic schools’ religion-based exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act, the matter was settled out of court under a non-disclosure agreement for a six-figure sum. In light of Brilley’s complaint, and echoing Williams’ call for the law to be reformed, the President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and NSW Privacy Commissioner, Chris Puplick stated, “Students’ rights should not be contingent upon their particular school.”[51]

HREOC and Wood Royal Commission

During the Justice James Roland Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service, Derek Williams represented GaLTaS in submissions on behalf of LGBT+ teachers and students.[62] During an interview on the 7:30 Report by Quentin Dempster, Williams explained the GaLTaS Code of Ethics and student welfare policy that had been revised the year before by Jacqui Griffin and adopted at a SGM in December 1995.[63][64]

In 1997, Griffin won a discrimination case filed with the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission under Chris Sidoti against the Sydney Catholic Education Office for refusing her employment on the basis of her GaLTaS co-convenorship, with Derek Williams appearing as witness representing GaLTaS.[65][66][67] The CEO rejected the HREOC finding,[68] nonetheless in March 1998, Sidoti submitted his decision to the Attorney General Daryl Williams for tabling in the Federal Parliament.[69]

In its submission to the Australian Commonwealth Parliament Inquiry into the Status of the Human Right of Freedom of Religion or Belief that had been called in 2016 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop, the Presbyterian Church of Queensland adduced Griffin's HREOC win in support of its claims of competing rights and alleged abrogation of Freedom of Religion.[70] However, the inquiry lapsed when the Joint Standing Committee disbanded at the dissolution of the House of Representatives in April 2019.[71]

Legacy

In 1998, GaLTaS was absorbed into the New South Wales Teachers Federation as a Special Interest Group,[72] with Derek Williams as a founding member. From 2010, the Safe Schools Coalition Australia began developing the Safe Schools Program to give support to teachers and schools seeking assistance in the creation of a more inclusive environment for LGBT+ students and their families.[73]

Prior to the activism of GaLTaS in bringing the existence of LGBT+ youth and their victimisation to inescapable public awareness, the NSW Dept of Education policy had been that “The Department of School Education does not condone or promote homosexuality”, along similar lines to the British Section 28, which reflected the prevailing view at that time. Virginia Chadwick’s recognition of the problems facing LGBT+ children in her schools and her willingness to address them with new anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies, reflected an opening up of dialogue with parents of these children, and their teachers. Moreover, the Howard government’s funding of Jacqui Griffin’s SchoolWatch Report followed by its public launch and adoption by Chadwick credibly placed on public record LGBT+ students’ experience of bullying and its direct association with suicide ideation.

By 2017, the New South Wales Education Department had promulgated its Review of Sexuality and Gender Education, setting out guidelines for age-appropriate sex education curricula,[74] following the 2011 expansion of its anti-bullying policy.[75] In 2022, the New South Wales government published its LGBTIQ+ Health Strategy 2022-2027 paper,[76] which along with the conclusive 61% ‘Yes’ vote in the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, further underlined the magnitude of the shift that had taken place in public understanding of LGBT+ identity away from its criminalisation prior to 1984.

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