I lost my job for coming out as gay. This needs to change – Sydney Morning Herald

Secondly, I knew my contract required me to inform the school if I changed my mind about a point of religious doctrine.

I knew from my time teaching at the school that the widely held view on homosexuality was unfavourable. In fact, this is the reason why some people urged me to consider resigning quietly or staying in the closet at work.

During my correspondence with the school I even offered to toe the line and teach the school’s ideas about sexuality while acknowledging the multiple perspectives within the Christian community, as a way to keep my job.

But the most significant reason why I started the conversation that resulted in my sacking is that I don’t think Christian schools need to discriminate against people like me to remain faithful to their creed.

Having grown up in a conservative Christian church I’m familiar with the Bible and I understand the accepted teachings about homosexuality.

Loading

But as I left school and experienced more of the world, meeting people with vastly different experiences to my own, I began to wonder how and why Christianity had come to exclude LGBTQIA+ people and their relationships.

I was meeting and befriending and reading about people who were authentic, kind and compassionate. Many of them were people of faith. I felt a growing need to challenge what church teachings had led me to think about homosexuality.

Of course, there was also the fact that I was growing in my awareness of my own sexuality and it became increasingly difficult to keep up the heterosexual act, so to speak.

So I embarked on a long journey of research and reading into theology, history, psychology and science. Long story short, I am now one of a rapidly growing number of people who see no incompatibility between having a genuine Christian faith and affirming LGBTQIA+ people and relationships.

For a multitude of reasons, I am convinced that Christian churches and organisations can be and should be fully accepting and inclusive of people of all genders and sexual identities.

This is the message I took to my employer. I sought to persuade the school that I could remain there as a teacher, fully myself, upholding its Christian mission and ethos. Evidently, things did not go the way I hoped.

I do not regret the course of action I took. I believe what happened to me is wrong, and I join those calling for an end to legislation that permits religious organisations to treat people the way I was treated.

My mental health suffered many blows as a result of my sacking. I have lost friends since coming out. It has been harder to find work, despite my passion and ability as a teacher. But I still don’t regret it.

Loading

My students are the joy of my job as a teacher. I watched many of them in that Christian school suffer due to the discomfort and fear that comes with being queer in an unsupportive environment — and we all know that this distress can quickly spiral, with tragic consequences.

I spoke up for them. I spoke up for my teenage self who wishes she’d had out queer Christian role models.

Things are going to change; they’ve got to get better.

I am grateful to play a small part in what is already a groundswell of support for fairer laws that prevent faith-based schools and other organisations from discriminating against people like me, simply because of who we are.

Steph Lentz is a teacher and writer based in Sydney.