Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association
The Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association 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. It was founded by two Committee members of the New South Wales Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby: gay activist Derek Williams, a New Zealand born teacher at Randwick Boys High School and Jennifer Glass, an 18-year-old lesbian New South Wales high school student. Williams was subsequently six times re-elected its male co-convenor, and after the resignation of Jennifer Glass, teacher Jacqui Griffin became female co-convenor for the major part of GaLTaS' significant activism. Her GaLTaS [|SchoolWatch Report], and the association's landmark [|legal cases] representing LGBT+ students and teachers led to changes in government policy that had far-reaching and [|longlasting impact]. Integral to GaLTaS' success was the activism of its student members, and its dialogue with unions, politicians, police, parents, and parent organisations PFLAG and Parents and Citizens.
History
A year into its existence, GaLTaS was registered on 17 September 1992 as an Australian Incorporated Society that was managed by a committee elected at each AGM, headed by two co-convenors. Parents were invited to all meetings, both individually and through the working association with PFLAG and the P&C. Previous attempts to set up support organisations such as the similarly named [|'GAYTAS'] in 1978 had not survived, with same-sex relationships at that stage still a criminal offence in New South Wales until law repeal in 1984, and in West Australia, Queensland and Tasmania until 1989, 1990 and 1997 respectively. However, GaLTaS prevailed after LGBT+ students themselves spoke openly to both LGBT+ media and mainstream media.Background
Incipient moves to establish support networks for LGBT+ students and teachers included the Gay Teachers and Students Group, established in Melbourne in 1975. This group spearheaded efforts to reform attitudes in relation to schooling and homosexuality by working with and seeking to influence, politicians and the broader community. In 1978, the group published Young, Gay and Proud, a book written for adolescents exploring a gay identity. An Americanised version of the same name was published in 1980. The Lesbian Teachers Group based in Sydney formed in June 1978, with the NSW Gay Teachers and Students group forming in 1979. The two groups worked both separately and collaboratively to agitate for change. Despite students being part of GAYTAS's name, the group did not have any student members. Nevertheless, they were attacked in Parliament by Mick Clough, who called for an inquiry to ensure that students were "protected from homosexual pressure". Clough also opposed decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1984.Gay Gang Murders
The impetus to set up the new association for LGBT+ teachers and students had reached a crucial point following the murder convictions and 18-year prison sentences handed down in 1990 to 8 students 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 were active in throwing gay men to their deaths off the cliffs of Marks Park, Tamarama. As many as 88 men were killed, including Scott Johnson, Ross Warren, Gilles Mataini and John Russell, with their deaths initially dismissed as "suicide", "accident" or otherwise "not suspicious". Amid a spate of such attacks, 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. By 2023, there were still "50 to 100 persons of interest at least known" to NSW Police.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 former Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby Co-Convenor, Carole Ruthchild and [|some of the students] being subjected to homophobic victimisation and violence at their school. Following an interview with Chadwick and Williams by Quentin Dempster on the 7:30 Report, Chadwick announced a draft Procedures For Resolving Complaints About Discrimination Against Students, that would provide a means for LGBT+ students to achieve redress and complete their education. Following the publication of the SchoolWatch Report, this was eventually promulgated in 1996 and the New South Wales Education Department also published a revised Resources for Teaching Against Violence kit, which included a substantial section devoted to 'Violence and Homophobia'. These measures were primarily intended to reverse the escalation of ubiquitous homophobic student invective into serious crime such as assault and homicide that were having life-changing consequences not only for their victims, but also for their juvenile perpetrators.The ''SchoolWatch Report'' and LGBT+ Youth Hotline
In March 1993, GaLTaS was awarded a Federal National Youth Grant of $30,000 by the Department of Employment, Education and Training to establish a toll-free telephone hotline for gay and lesbian student victims of homophobic harassment and violence in schools. A team of 18 counsellors was trained by GaLTaS parent convenor Kay Humphreys and counsellor Karen Paroissien during May 1993. More than 500 calls were taken after the hotline was launched on 17 July 1993.Research from surveys conducted by Jacqui Griffin was compiled for inclusion in The SchoolWatch Report : A Study into Anti-Lesbian and Anti-Gay Harassment and Violence in Australian Schools, with foreword by Paul O'Grady MLC and Epilogue by Derek Williams. SchoolWatch was modelled on the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby's Streetwatch Report on anti-LGBT+ violence, launched in 1990 by Police Minister Ted Pickering.
A copy of Griffin's SchoolWatch Report was sent to Mrs Chadwick, who expressed alarm at its findings in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, confirming she had heard "very sad, and sometimes horrifying stories" about discrimination:
Mrs Chadwick told the Herald she would have 'no difficulty' with reading lists of fiction and non-fiction books selected from a list provided by GaLTaS that provided positive images of LGBT people being placed in school libraries. Chadwick subsequently launched the SchoolWatch Report on 6 March 1995 at Randwick Boys High School in a ceremony attended by teachers, students, Griffin, Williams, the headmaster Geoff McNeill who had invited Chadwick, and the school's P&C. Following the launch, the SchoolWatch Committee was formed in June 1995 by Williams to bring together representatives from the New South Wales Department of Education, the Board of Studies, the New South Wales Parents and Citizens Association,
the New South Wales Teachers Federation, the Independent Education Union of Australia, the Catholic Education Office, the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board, independent MP Clover Moore and the NSW Police Gay Liaison Officer to address ongoing issues of school bullying, suicidal ideation, suicide among LGBT youth and homicide by students, via [|workshops], teacher training and books in schools programmes.
In September 1995, the New South Wales Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues referenced the SchoolWatch Report data in A Report into Youth Violence in New South Wales, noting significant under-reporting:
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.
In February 1997, as GaLTaS delegate, Williams addressed a Parliament of Australia forum on youth suicide convened by then Prime Minister, John Howard, working with Heather Horntvedt who represented PFLAG in her address to the forum.
Northern Territory
Attempts to set up regional branches of GaLTaS sometimes met stiff political opposition. In February 1993, upon hearing Jacqui Griffin was setting up a GaLTaS office in her home town of Darwin in collaboration with the parent group PFLAG, NT Education Minister Mike Reed expressed concerns in an ABC radio broadcast that GaLTaS would "recruit impressionable children". He called GaLTaS "discriminating and bigoted" and said it was "about time they recognised they are a minority group." Nevertheless, 30 years later, the Northern Territory Government under Labor would [|revoke entirely] all anti-LGBT religious exemptions from its anti-discrimination legislation, with Griffin in attendance.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. In an interview on the 7:30 Report by Quentin Dempster, Williams outlined 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.Workshops and Conferences
GaLTaS was regularly called upon to convene workshops in schools and in Department of Education teacher training, as well as holding its own conferences. In her article for Kevin Jennings' book One Teacher in 10, Jacqui Griffin described her experiences dealing with homophobia among students when teaching Science, some of which became case studies for such conferences.In 1994, led by Co-Convenor Margaret Edwards, GaLTaS held a conference at the Australian Museum titled Pride and Vision: The Way Ahead. Speakers included Clover Moore, Chris Puplick, Paul O’Grady and Julie McCrossin. The conference agenda included 'ignorance and homophobia', 'parenting gays/lesbians', 'gay rural youth', 'special needs of gay/lesbian students', 'breaking down stereotypes', 'coming out without the put-downs', 'HIV issues in schools' and 'strategies for homophobia reduction'.