No same-sex sambas at this school ball

By JAMES GARDINER

Girls at one of New Zealand's largest single-sex secondary schools have been told they cannot take female partners to the school ball unless they declare themselves lesbians.

Westlake Girls High School in Takapuna yesterday denied it was official policy but acknowledged there was a ban on same-sex partners. The school held its seventh-form ball last weekend and the same rules will apply to next month's sixth-form ball.

Girls from the school told the Weekend Herald that ball organisers had spread the word that anyone who wanted to take a girlfriend to the ball as her partner had to write a note or get one from her parents declaring that she was a lesbian.

But school principal Alison Gernhoefer said yesterday that she had given no such instruction and nor had staff.

"That would be more than my job's worth," she said.

"I will check with the organising committee [of staff and students] and I will skin them alive if they say something like that."

Mrs Gernhoefer wanted the names of the girls the Herald spoke to, saying "we will pursue it", but we were not prepared to supply those, having given assurances of confidentiality to the girls and to a parent of another girl who independently confirmed what they said.

Mrs Gernhoefer said the main reason for not allowing girls from other schools to come as partners to the $50-a-head ball was to stop the event being dominated by girls.

But she agreed last weekend's ball was a combined event with Westlake Boys High seventh formers, who could bring girls from any school as their partners.

"I'm old-fashioned enough to think that balls are for boys and girls, actually."

The sixth-form ball is open to Westlake girls and their male partners only.

Gay and lesbian support groups expressed surprise that such a policy should even be contemplated. The Human Rights Commission questioned the legality of discriminating against girls who would prefer to bring a girl as their partner.

Women's Affairs and Youth Affairs Minister Laila Harre said she could not see any youth benefit or developmental benefit in banning same-sex partners.

"It seems to me to be an extraordinary interference in the right of any girl to bring any appropriate partner to the ball. I can't imagine a beneficial reason for doing it."

It was "social engineering gone mad," Ms Harre said.

Girls spoken to outside the school this week said they felt the ban on female partners was unfair and discriminatory.

They wanted to bring the partner of their choice regardless of sex or their own sexuality.

"For many girls, even if they weren't lesbians, they would like to take a girlfriend as a partner," said one.

"I'd much rather go with someone and have someone to dance with than by myself."

Westlake Boys High deputy principal Brian Rivers did not know whether his school had a policy on same-sex partners. He said he would find out but did not call back yesterday.

The chair of the Hero Trust, Anne Speir, said that if girls were allowed to declare themselves lesbians and take another girl as a partner, it seemed liberal on one level.

"In my day there was no way that you could ever say you were a lesbian and you were taking your mate to the ball because you were a dyke. But actually it's quite homophobic."

Human Rights Commission communications officer Miriam Bell said the Human Rights Act outlawed unequal treatment on the grounds of sex or sexual orientation.

A Westlake parent, though, backed any ban on female partners, saying balls were an exercise in social education.

"The whole purpose, I'd imagine, is to give girls and boys an experience of dressing up formally and relating to each other in that way.

"It becomes just another dance if you let girls come without a male partner and do their own thing."