This woman, who spoke to SBS under anonymity, is a teacher at an Islamic school in Melbourne.
She says she would lose her job if management discovered she identifies as a lesbian.
“From the talk in the staffroom, it’s clear that homosexuality is unacceptable. There’s been talk that, next to murder, it’s the worst sin.”
She says she had never struggled to reconcile her lesbianism with her Islamic faith -- until she started working at the school and hearing the views of the people who worked there.
“It was the first time that I felt, 'Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe this is something that I should try to control.' And for a time, I did. I tried to be straight. I tried to be interested in men. It didn’t work.”
Another schoolteacher, Michael James, says the disapproval of managers at the Catholic boys school in Queensland where he worked eventually led to him losing his job.
Mr James says it was one of his co-workers who first discovered he identified as gay.
He says that co-worker ended up becoming a friend and was able to talk about his sexuality with several of the teachers.
But, soon, some of the students found examples of Mr James engaging in gay-rights activism online.
He says the news quickly raced around the school.
Mr James says a Catholic brother who worked at the school also lost his job after management realised he was gay.
And he says their cases are not unique.
"It's definitely out there, and it's definitely happening. And I know other teachers who are queer who work in schools, and they just keep their heads down, because they don't want it becoming an issue -- because we know that the schools can do it."
Federal parliament is currently debating legislation to prevent students and possibly teachers from discrimination by religious schools.
It comes after a leak of the religious-freedoms review, led by former Liberal attorney-general Philip Ruddock, revealed the panel recommended entrenching exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act, albeit with safeguards.
The proposed recommendations prompted widespread backlash.
Mark Spencer of Christian Schools Australia says he would be happy to see amendments to the act but wants to be consulted before they pass into law.
Mr Spencer says employment opportunities for LGBTIQ+ teachers are plentiful at other types of schools.
"People know who we are, what we are as schools, what we believe, and they'll self-select by not even applying. There's lots of other great schools -- public schools, other independent schools, Catholic schools often -- where they can go and find employment, and do so."
