A Canadian dad asked for advance notice of the mention of horoscopes, wizardry, and moral relativism so he could shield his kids from "false teachings" at school, in a court case now being used by the "no" campaign to suggest gay sex education will become mandatory in Australia if same-sex marriage is legalised.



Steve Tourloukis, a father of two and member of the Greek Orthodox Church, is positioned as a crusader who fought and lost against "radical gay sex education" in Canada in two videos released by the "no" campaign.

"I realise how naïve I was back in those days, but you wouldn’t think that two men or two women getting married would have such a profound effect on the education system, but I assure you that it has," he says in the video.

But the court records for his case tell a more nuanced story — centred on whether or not it was reasonable for a public school to accommodate Tourloukis's laundry list of objectionable discussion points in the classroom, which stretched to learning about the environment, astrology, and the notion of people having different values systems.

Tourloukis also objected to any mention or portrayal of same-sex relationships or transgender people in the classroom that did not position such people and relationships as unnatural and unhealthy.

The records also show that Tourloukis did have the right to remove his children from sex education classes and was told this, but instead opted to sue the school after it refused to accommodate his full list.

He eventually lost the case when Justice Robert Reid found the school had acted reasonably and declined to make an order asserting Tourloukis's parental authority.