What Happened When a Gay Author Visited a Catholic School? The Answer May Shock You

When Will Kostakis, an award-winning gay Australian author, visited a Catholic school for a five-day program to inspire students to enjoy story writing, an unusual situation occurred.

Will Kostakis

Kostakis, who has given presentations in numerous schools, some of them religiously-based, said he was aware that for certain audiences, he felt it appropriate not to emphasize his gay identity so as not to court controversy. At this particular Catholic school, the first event was a plenary assembly where he gave a talk about honoring diversity–a talk that school officials had heard him give before and thought was appropriate.

At the end of the talk, though, instead of going to a classroom for his first planned lesson, the principal told him the schedule was being delayend and whisked the author into the staff room and locked him in. After a while, Kostakis learned he was not being punished, but protected. He explained:

“Turns out there was a mother at the school that ran an alt-right Facebook meme account, and they were all really scared of her.”

The principal, who supported the author, eventually led him to the classroom to begin his delayed lesson.

He described the situation in a video posted to Instagram. In an article in Australia’s Star-Observer he explained that the episode made him reflect on the current situation of addressing LGBTQ+ issues with students. The news report offered some of his thoughts.

“ ‘We’ve made some significant progress over the past few years when it comes to schools embracing queer texts and their authors. Unfortunately, last year saw the pendulum swing back in some disheartening ways – schools asking authors not to be openly queer when they visit, libraries removing LGBTQIA+ books from book fairs… A lot of it comes from fearing a backlash from a vocal minority of parents, and letting their queer students down in the process’ he said.

“However he remains optimistic by the schools that do support him and other queer authors in providing authentic stories to young people.

“ ‘That all said, when queer authors are allowed to be themselves, students recognise that authenticity and respond in kind. And I’m buoyed by the many schools, teachers and teacher-librarians doing so much to promote queer writing and authors, and protect their queer students.’ ”

The whole story is chilling, given the anti-equality sentiments that are being unleashed in a variety of corners of the globe . It illustrates that anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is becoming so over-the-top as to cause fear in the hearts of professional educators who had to take a drastic measure to protect an honored gay guest. It illustrates that not all milestones in LGBTQ+ equality are guaranteed to survive. It illustrates that policies which erase LGBTQ+ people from education and public materials will eventually lead to direct harm to individuals.

It illustrates that Catholics are on both sides of the situation here: some fighting against LGBTQ+ people and some working to protect them. We need to work to get them all on the side of love.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 12, 2025