When I was 12, despite not being religious, my parents sent me to a Christian high school. They did this because of the school’s small size, community feel, and good facilities. While this may have been well intentioned, there is something neither they or I knew which may have influenced their decision: I was gay.

While the school’s program did not care about the religiosity of their pupils, the school had a policy of only employing practicing Christians. This meant that religious beliefs and ethics permeated through many aspects of my education.

Oliver Griffith hid his sexuality until he was in his 20s.

In a chemistry class, a teacher trying to hint to us what the opposite of a heterogeneous mixture was said that she “hoped none of us were the first part of the word”. Homo. In a casual conversation in a computing class, a teacher said that he thought the Sydney Mardi Gras was one of the most dangerous social movements to reach Australia. This is nothing compared to the teachings which we received in Christian Studies, which were often to-the-book homophobic.

Growing up gay in an environment like this is a challenge because you are faced with your realisation of your own identity and at the same time are taught by people you trust that you are a deviant, a danger to society, and otherwise should be shunned from the community.