A Victorian schoolgirl says she was refused permission to take her girlfriend to her Year 11 school formal, and has changed schools as a result.
Fairfax reports 16-year-old Hannah Williams was told by Ivanhoe Girls Grammar not to bring her partner, 15-year old Savannah Supski to the formal, and was asked to bring a male instead.
Hannah says she went to great lengths to take Savannah as her date, but ended up skipping the event altogether when she was barred from doing so.
"I put a lot of effort into trying to fix things. I had meetings with principals; looked through the Equal Opportunity Act; all my friends put posters up around the school and the teachers ripped them down," Hannah told the Sydney Morning Herald.
There was an easy solution; they just needed to let me go with my girlfriend."
Hannah's father Peter Williams says such an edict is old-fashioned and unfair.
"The school kept saying because it is an all-girls school we want to make an event where they can meet boys in a social scenario," Mr Williams told the SMH.
"That process is anachronistic and creates feelings of discrimination among girls who are same-sex-attracted."
Hannah has since moved to Swinburne Senior Secondary College, which Mr Williams says is more accepting.
