Children exercise
Members of the Crystal Palace diving club attend a training session in a dry diving gym in London March 9, 2012. Standing in neat lines in a south London gym, a squad of hand-picked, tracksuited youngsters stretch their arms in unison, counting together in Mandarin.Taking the proverb 'if you can't beat them, join them' quite literally, Crystal Palace diving club has turned to Chinese expertise to foster Britain's future Olympic hopes. Picture taken March 9, 2012. Reuters/Stefan Wermuth

The documentary “Gayby Baby” received flak from a Christian minister who campaigned against its screening at a girls’ high school. The minister accused the gay parenting film as a "part of a larger initiative by a gay lobby" but the same official has been put in question, following probes revealing his scripture classes were severely cut down in the previous year.

Burwood Girls High students did not get to see the “Gayby Baby” documentary along with 20 other schools after NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli issued a ministerial decree leading to the statewide ban of the film. The documentary was prohibited across the education system during school hours.

However, following further investigation, Fairfax Media found documents showing that the leading force in the campaign against the documentary, Mark Powell, had his special religious education (SRE) classes cut from once a week to once a term. The verdict came after the school council found that his teaching incompatible with the school community. Reverend Powell served as the chairman of the GeneR8 ministries responsible for the school classes.

The Sydney Morning Herald had previously reported about the reverend's concerns about the film. "Just heard today that Burwood Girls is making it compulsory for all students to attend the screening of a film promoting homosexuality," Powell wrote.

"All this from the same principal who banned SRE from continuing to be taught in the school a couple of years ago." Powell denied claims that part of his advocacy to stop the screening was because of malice towards principal Mia Kumar of Burwood Girls High.

Activists were outraged at the prohibition. A report by 9news said that protesters took to the streets and outside the offices of Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Community Action Against Homophobia staged a strike outside newspaper’s Surry Hills office saying that "homophobia has no place in schools.”

“It doesn’t matter if you have one mum or two, one dad or two, your family is based on love." Greens NSW MP John Kaye said during the protest.

“Interference in the educational function and social role of the school was not asked for and was completely unnecessary.”

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