Tasmania’s Catholic Schools Cited for LGBTQ+ Discrimination

A recent Tasmanian Government Inquiry found LGBTQ students in the Australian state’s Catholic schools are disproportionately the targets of bullying and receive insufficient support. 

“At the heart of this inquiry is pain,” wrote Chair Brian Mitchel, a member of the Tasmanian state’s legislature. “Pain suffered by young people. Pain suffered at a time when they should be learning, making friends, being given the space and opportunity to grow into adulthood mentally and emotionally healthy, unencumbered by the stresses adulthood inevitably provides.”

Australia’s Star-Observer newspaper reported that the inquiry found that LGBTQ+ policies and procedures were inadequate and inconsistent across educational sectors, which has been leading to a lack of support for students and staff. This was especially clear in cases involving transgender or gender-diverse students, who were sometimes not appropriately supported. Often, the lack of support included the delayed acceptance and management of name changes, the provision of inadequate bathroom and changing facilities, and faulty handling of instances of discrimination and/or bullying.   

The inquiry also found Catholic Education Tasmania (CET, the church’s supervisory agency for their schools, discriminated against staff on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. Discrimination against such protected attributes is illegal by the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act 1998. CET claimed compliance with the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 , which outlaws discrimination against people on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, relationship status, pregnancy, breastfeeding, or family responsibilities. 

Evidence in the inquiry contested CET’s claim Among this evidence were allegations that LGBTQ+ staff members at Catholic schools were withheld promotions, and that gender-diverse students were referred to counselors with conversion therapy practices.

The inquiry recommended the Tasmanian Government fund more LGBTQ+ inclusion policies and training, increase the amount of mental health support staff in schools, and introduce bullying and discrimination management training. Not only that, they additionally recommended every Tasmanian school work toward providing individual stall unisex bathrooms.

“For more than two decades Tasmania’s Catholic and independent education systems operated in accordance with the state Anti-Discrimination Act with no loss of religious freedom or family choice,” said Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome, the state’s LGBTQ+ political advocacy organization. .

“Only in recent years has the Anti-Discrimination Act come under attack from religious leaders who believe it is their God-given right to defy the law and discriminate against Tasmania’s LGBTIQA+ teachers and students.” 

—Tulio Huggins, New Ways Ministry, September 21, 2026