The Alliance political party has backed a call from the Not In Our Schools group for the homophobic Destiny church and political party to be expelled from Wellington High School. More than half the students at Wellington High have signed a petition against Destiny's presence. "It's not appropriate for an outside group preaching hatred and intolerance to make use of the school facilities," said Alliance Human Rights Spokesperson Kelly Buchanan. "Wellington High is well known as a diverse and tolerant school, yet the students are being forced to share space with a group that condemns many of them as abominations. These students have a right to be free from that sort of hostility." A school is a community, not just a collection of buildings for hire, according to Ms Buchanan. Limits to equal access principles are quite justified in such cases. "I'm sure Destiny would be less than thrilled if, say, a gay parents group tried to hire one of their churches for its meetings." Alliance members will be joining the Not In Our Schools protest at 12:30pm this Sunday 23 Jan on the Grassy Knoll outside Wellington High.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 21st January 2005 - 12:00pm