Troye Sivan's Mum, Laurelle Mellet, Launches Petition To "Save Safe Schools"

Attn: Malcs. Troye Sivan’s mum, Laurelle Mellet, has launched a petition to “save Safe Schools’ funding”.

The Change.org petition – which, as of this writing, has 4,700 digital signatures - urges Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham to “extend the funding for Safe Schools and make it compulsory for all schools to have the revised program”.

The controversial Safe Schools program was “gutted” earlier this year following a review, and the Coalition government has not committed to funding it beyond 2017.

The issue is undeniably close to Laurelle Mellet’s heart, given her son, Troye, came out to her at the age of 14. Three years later, he made his sexuality public to his fans via his YouTube account.

“Troye was terrified but needn’t have been - his coming out video went viral and we couldn’t be prouder of him,” she writes on the petition page.

“But Troye was lucky. Thousands of gay teens battle aggressive intimidation, exclusion and even attempts of suicide.”

We phoned Laurelle to ask what moved her to post the petition, as well as what Troye’s thoughts were on her call to action.

“Being a mother, it’s something that I’m passionate about, and I don’t understand why parents wouldn’t want their children to be in a safe environment in school,” she told Student Edge.

“I’d like children to have a broader spectrum of life; that there are children out there who are gay and are bi and are transgender. I think that if you’re not getting it from home, to be able to at least get it from school is a start. I know the program is not everything it should be, but it’s definitely a start.”

Before posting the petition, Laurelle ran the wording past her family, who encouraged her to “go for it”.

“I sent [Troye] a draft of what I was going to say, and he came back saying, ‘Yeah mum, I think that’s awesome.' Then he sent me another email saying, ‘I’m just really proud of you and I think it’s awesome that you’re doing this.’”

As for why she posted the petition, her reasoning was simple: “There are still children out there who are being bullied and leading absolutely miserable lives.”

“My fear is that we’re going to have a generation, again, of people growing up who discriminate and don’t understand that there are people out there who are gay and bi and transgender," she added.

“It’s just going to be yet another generation of people not accepting and not understanding that people are all different. That’s what scares me.”

You can sign the petition here.

Meanwhile, check out Troye's return to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from earlier this week. He made his TV debut for Fallon last year.

Photo: Change.