A Facebook fight against a male Wellington high school student being told he could not bring a male ex-student to the school ball has been widened to provide a platform to push for same-sex partners to be allowed to attend balls. St Patrick's College student Malcolm Pimentel, 18, started the group, saying he wanted to bring his friend and former student Keith Labad to the ball but was told by Rector Father Paul Martin that he had to bring a girl. "I am a Catholic. I just also happen to be queer. We are not taking shots at religion, but rather, we're trying to claim what we deserve as humans and that is our right. This is not an attack on our school or religion," Pimental wrote. While he did not respond to GayNZ.com Daily News, Fr Martin has told other media the ball was for students from St Patrick's and it would not allow boys from other colleges or old boys to attend the event. "It's a management issue. When you have boys from other schools or former students, you can have tensions between the students. Balls are complicated enough without adding another dimension," he told the Dominion Post. He said pupils could bring girls who had finished school and there would be no issue if two boys from the school wanted to go to the ball together. Labad has now joined forces with the Queer The Night Collective, which last week held a powerful march through central Wellington designed at claiming back the streets after attacks on glbt people. The Facebook page, which has drawn more than 9,500 members in a matter of days, has been updated with the title "Get Same Sex Couples to the Ball." "If the policy says that you may not take a boy to the dance who is one year out of school, but may take a girl who is one year out of school, then they are indirectly homophobic," Labad and the Collective say. They say the policy, by its very design, creates a de facto ban on the ability of queer students to bring a partner from outside of their own school. "This policy disadvantages queer students in relation to their straight counterparts." The group is calling for an end to all explicit and implicit homophobic school policy. "Specifically, we demand that the school change its policy so that its queer students have the same ability as their straight counterparts to invite the young-person of their choice to the ball. If the school is not responsive, we will have to consider making a complaint with the Human Rights Commission."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 15th June 2011 - 2:48pm