Reprise I’ve been away and I’m too busy to put anytime into this. And anti-discrimination law is that bloody complex that (although I used to do a bit) I’m not really game to try to answer the questions raised by you and the OP, without about 4 hours of research.
But my first thought is whether or not this could be considered discrimination in any regulated field? That is to say, at least in this state, general discrimination is not banned, what is banned is discrimination in housing, employment, provision of goods and services, education etc. And you are probably thinking “but the OP concerns the field of education”, but the laws at least in this state are in relation to discrimination against the student (broadly speaking) so query whether in the OP example the indirect discrimination against the student (via the parent) is enough?
And if it is a private school, perhaps education is a “service” and being allowed to bring any aged parent is part of that service?
There is certainly scope in the OP for a really interesting case, but which way it would go is, as I say, more that I am prepared to hazard a guess at.
And besides, anti-discrimination law is such a jurisdiction by jurisdiction thing that YMMV in extremis.
Thanks for responding Princhester. One of the reasons I asked about the state and the country in which this rule (until it’s validated by a court it is only a RULE folks, and NOT a law) has been seemingly enforced is because I’m extremely aware of the sweeping provisions of our own anti-discrimination laws and how sometimes people seek to abuse the “spirit” of those laws by referring to the “letter”.
As you know, and I do, it usually doesn’t work trying to pull that kind of legal bullshit here; even in sunny Queensland (which you’d have to admit is quite conservative in the legal sense) you just aren’t going to get away with the selective application of rules and claiming them as law…
Well, it occurs to me that there are two reasonable stances one might take with regard to this issue:
Based on a strongly held and expressed minority view from the gay-student-at-a-Catholic-Ontario-high-school thread which suggested that allowing someone to bring a same-sex date was “promoting homosexual conduct,” allowing this girl to bring her mother as her date would be promoting incestuous Lesbian conduct – which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a vested interest in not promoting.
Absent that POV, it occurs to me that anyone whom a student is interested in bringing as a date and of whose conduct the student is willing to be a surety (facing penalties up to and including not being permitted to graduate if enough trouble is caused by the date) is no business of the school’s. Making exclusionary rules on the basis that “people of category X are likely to cause trouble” is no way for an institution in an egalitarian democracy to operate.
Actually reprise I’ve been involved in at least two bullshit anti-discrimination claims. Due to confidentiality, I’m not in a position to describe them to you, but they pretty much took my breath away in terms of sheer audacity on the part of the claimant. And we eventually concluded that there was sufficient possibility that we’d lose that we settled, albeit for comparatively small amounts. Don’t forget that such claims are decided by tribunals presided over by very liberal minded persons, typically. Not that that is a bad thing in my mind much of the time.
And as to Queensland being conservative in the legal sense, I think that you may be behind the times to some degree. Don’t forget that Joh is now long ago, and that we have had pretty liberal minded Labor administrations for a decade or so now. The drug laws are the only thing that comes to mind in terms of obviously conservative legislation that is out of step with the rest of Oz. Did you have anything in particular in mind?
Exactly. I’m sure a seperate debate concerning the right of a student to take anyone over the age of eighteen as a date would be very interesting, but this is not what this thread is about. This thread is about The Ryan relieving himself of his rabid dislike of homosexuals and any equalities that they might dare ask for.
so you’ve dramatically changed your stance since this recent thread, then?