Karen Pack was praised as an ‘excellent’ educator, but she says she was sacked by her employer Morling College for being gay – but the College disputes this

Karen Pack was excited about getting married to long-time partner Bronte Scott.

The 46-year-old told her work colleagues last year — and then lost her job.

Ms Pack told 7.30 she was sacked – legally, under current laws — because she is openly gay and worked at Morling College, a Baptist education institution in Sydney.

She believes it was prompted by an email from the public attacking her sexuality and urging the Baptist denomination to “distance itself from her demonic actions” because they felt “disgusted”.

It’s a claim the College disputes. 

In a statement to 7.30, the principal of Morling College, Ross Clifford, said it was Ms Pack who decided to leave the school because she could “no longer adhere to a key Morling value” about the “nature of marriage”, and that “after discussion and prayer” she left their employment. It’s a claim that the couple deny.

The College initially told students in a letter obtained by 7.30 that “the decision for Karen to end her lecturing role was made by the Principal, with the knowledge and support of the Morling College Board and College Leadership Team. It was based on the position on same-sex marriage held by the College stated in our community code.”

And yet the College described her in that same letter to students as an “excellent and committed educator”, a “good friend, teacher and colleague” who would still be “warmly welcomed on campus”.

“Karen loved that job and that work and she flourished in that because that’s what she’s great at. And for that to be taken away… it was really hard to watch,” Ms Scott told 7.30. 

The experience has led the couple and groups like Equality Australia, fear what new powers to discriminate will be created by the federal government’s planned changes to religious freedom laws in addition to existing exemptions.

“Sadly, laws across Australia currently allow LGBTQ+ teachers, students and staff to be fired or expelled from faith-based schools and educational institutions simply because of who they are or whom they love. This discrimination remains legal in every state and territory apart from the ACT and Tasmania,” said Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown.

“The students at Morling College have lost a faithful and committed teacher, who was great at her job. Until parliaments across Australia amend laws to remove special privileges for faith-based institutions, schools and colleges like Morling will continue to be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ+ teachers, students and staff with impunity.”

‘It’s been an incredibly painful journey’

Karen Pack is a deeply committed Christian. She’s been a missionary, is an ordained minister and has been a teacher for 25 years.

“It’s terrifying to come out as a gay Christian,” she told 7.30.

“Especially, I think, when you’ve grown up in a church, you’re within a culture that tells you that your belonging and your value is unconditional, that it’s based on the love of God, that it’s based on the love of Jesus for all people.

“But the reality that you know that you’ve internalised your whole life is that it is actually conditional.

“It’s been an incredibly painful journey. I’ve been in churches where I’ve been called demonic going into church. I’ve been in churches where there’s petitions on the back table against people like me.”

Email attacking ‘demonic’ sexuality 

For two years, Ms Pack was employed to train chaplains at Morling College.

“In February 2018, I signed a contract to become an adjunct lecturer, both times just checking that I could sign up with integrity,” Ms Pack said. 

“I was open with people and staff. I didn’t hide my sexuality.”

In 2019, Morling formally offered her another new teaching role at the college. This time, she signed a code of conduct created in the aftermath of the same sex marriage vote.

“I responded by saying, ‘Look, I’m very happy to affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman, that that is a sacred and a beautiful thing. I have no problem affirming that. What you need to understand is that’s not the limit of what I affirm. That’s not the only thing that recognises and reflects the beauty and the sacredness of God’,” she said.

“And they accepted that, and were happy to have me sign the contract and continue on staff.”

Then, at the start of 2020, the school received an email from a member of the public, which 7.30 has seen.

It declared Ms Pack is a “lesbian” who needs to be “denounced immediately”, and it urged the Baptist denomination to “distance itself from her demonic actions” because they felt “disgusted”.

All legal under current law 

While the College disputes that Ms Pack was sacked, it would not have been illegal for them to do so on the basis of her sexuality.

“Under the Sex Discrimination Act, religious institutions can discriminate on the basis of someone’s sexual orientation. And they have a particular exemption that allows them to do that,” said Alex Grayson, a workplace law specialist from Maurice Blackburn.

“It is unlawful to discriminate someone on the basis of their colour, their age, their disability — religious institutions can’t do that in employment.

“But in relation to sexual orientation, different rules apply and religious institutions can do that.”

Following the same sex marriage vote, the federal government promised to review laws protecting freedom of religion.

In 2019, it started drafting a religious discrimination bill that seeks to further enshrine the right for religious schools to dismiss gay staff that have different beliefs to the organisation.

“The religious freedoms laws that are currently trying to be passed, they’re not religious freedom laws, they’re protected discrimination laws,” Ms Pack told 730.

“They’re trying to protect the right of some elements in the church to discriminate, not against people outside, but against people within their very own bodies, their very own churches and families. That’s what’s so devastating about it.”

But Ms Pack doesn’t intend to take Morling to court.

“I haven’t pursued legal action and I have no intention of doing that. I’m doing this because right now, one of my friends is in a mental health unit,” she said. 

“I know of two more teachers just this [year] that have been sacked from Christian schools. That’s why I’m doing it.”

From ostracism to ‘I do’ 

Karen Pack and her partner Bronte Scott were married last month in the Uniting Church in the inner Sydney suburb of Paddington, surrounded by close friends who have championed and supported them through the past few years. 

“We really wanted to get married in a physical church, because of the role of our faith. And just to be, like, yeah, we’re doing this — living all of ourselves,” Ms Scott said. 

“We’re stepping into the next part of our life, of being fully us, being married… knowing there’s a place for us.”

Watch the full story on 7.30, Thursday night on ABC TV and .