Anglican School Teacher Laments Being Sacked Because She is Gay

                        (Stephanie Lentz)

An Anglican school teacher, Stephanie Lentz, has said that she was fired from her Christian school because she is gay. She also said that there is a possibility that under the new law, more people like her may lose their jobs.

Australia's Prime Minister, Scott Morrison had introduced a bill to the parliament which is centered on religious discrimination. Hours after this, Lentz spoke about her situation on ABC's Q+A program.

‘'I really enjoyed the colleagues and the relationships with students, but in January this year the school fired me. And they fired me because I'm gay. They fired me because they disagreed with me that you can be Christian and also live true to the biological realities of your sexuality or gender.

‘’The law Mr Morrison introduced seeks to exempt Australians who make 'statements of belief' from existing discrimination laws, but only if those statements do not 'threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify a person or group,’’ she said

Morrison defended the bill on Thursday on the floor of Federal Parliament by quoting Ephesians Chapter 4.

‘'Religion and faith is also about humility and vulnerability. It is about love. It is about compassion. It is about speaking the truth in love, as the scriptures say,'’ Morrison said.

While speaking on the bill, North Sydney Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman, who is gay, narrated his concern about some unclear parts of the bill.

‘'The detail that I'm keen to have clarified is whether by allowing schools to put in place policies that can guide their employment. Whether there are any loopholes that could see effectively backdoor ways of setting rules in relation to hiring and firing teachers based on their sexuality or other personal attributes,'’ he said.

When Anglican Pastor Michael Jensen was asked how cases as Ms Lentz’s could be settled without people losing their jobs, he said that it is ‘’complicated.’’

Host of Q+A, Stan Grant, asked Ms Lentz further questions on why she was tired. He asked, ‘’Were you fired because you were gay or because you could no longer teach the ethos or the doctrine of that school? Had you offered to do just that?'

Lentz replied, '’I had offered to promote the school's ethos on sexuality. Obviously, notwithstanding things that I believed would be harmful to the students, but I did offer to back the school's position on a lot of things.'’’ 

However, Lentz did not disclose the name of her school and said that the school was not willing to discuss further on her sack because of her sexuality.