Australian High School Allows Students to Choose Between Boy or Girl Uniforms

Students at an Australian high school can now choose to wear uniforms designed for either boys or girls, regardless of their gender, due to a new rule.

The students who attend Sydney’s Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, which has been known for its progressive values, successfully lobbied for their school to change its dress code policy last week, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Our aim was to remove the un-inclusive gender labels from the school uniform, and make it so that anyone could wear any aspect of the uniform without having to go through a long and difficult process,” student Jo Dwyer told the newspaper. That process included providing parental consent and notes from psychologists. “That wasn’t really a possibility for some students whose parents aren’t supportive of their gender identity,” Dwyer said.

The move has been met with support from the LGBT community but criticism from conservative groups. “It is a retrograde idea in my mind,” Australian Christian Lobby spokeswoman Wendy Francis told the Herald. “There is no need to say we are going to allow boys to wear a kilt or girls to wear trousers, I find it almost laughable.”

[Sydney Morning Herald]