School Tells 7-Year-Old Student She Would Never Have Been Accepted If They Knew Her Dad Was Gay

In news to make you cry-scream into a nearby cushion, a seven-year-old Mandurah student has been told by her Christian school that she would not have been accepted if they’d known her father was gay.

According to the Mandurah Mail, Foundation Christian College principal Andrew Newhouse told the student she could only stay at the school if she kept the sexuality of her father and his partner a secret.

The father, Brendan, requested that the paper withhold his last name to protect the identity of his daughter.

The ordeal began with a conversation about former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

“[My daughter] got talking about Tony Abbott and gay marriage and mentioned that her dad is with [my partner] and she was shut down by her teacher and then the teacher had to explain to the class what ‘gay’ is,” Brendan told the Mail.

At a parent-teacher meeting, Brendan was informed “they don’t promote ‘gay’ at the school” and that his daughter would need to keep their home life to themselves.

“She could mention my name, but she couldn’t talk about us being gay or relating to us as a couple, so pretty much to a seven-year-old, we were forced to say to [my daughter] that she wasn’t allowed to talk about Daddy or [my partner] at all,” he added.

"[The principal] said to me that 'if we knew you were gay at the interview you would never have got in this school'."

Brendan was also informed by Principal Newhouse that his daughter would be expelled if a parent complained about her presence. He decided to withdraw his daughter from Foundation and enroll her at a public primary school instead.

“I said to [Principal Newhouse], ‘what are you going to do when marriage equality is passed in Australia?’; he said that the board would get together and discuss the application process and it would be somewhere on there that gays aren’t welcome,” he continued.

Principal Newhouse confirmed to the Mandurah Mail that children of same-sex parents would not be welcome at the school.