Education, religion, and LGBTQ plus in Australia

This paper examines the religiosity, sexuality, and attitudes towards same-sex relationships among young people who were students at religiously affiliated schools in Australia and the staff who work in these schools, drawing on a national representative survey. It demonstrates that students are increasingly nonreligious, and accepting of alternatively sexualities, and increasingly identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual. The religiosity of staff has changed less, but teachers have become increasingly accepting of alternative sexualities. These changes are important because they present a very different picture of religiously affiliated education to that portrayed by the conservative religious authorities who shape the policies and practices in these schools. Conservative Christian church leaders are using discursive practices of religious freedom to support governmental techniques and institutional privilege within religiously affiliated educational contexts to constitute conservative sexual subjectivities among the general Australian public who work in and attend these schools.