Commentary Declared a fundamental human right in international treaties to which Australia is a signatory, the exercise of the right to religious freedom has nonetheless been sorely tested in recent days. The controversy was provoked by Citipointe Christian College, a Brisbane-based independent school within the Christian Outreach Centre Movement when it asked parents of pupils to agree that their children would identify “as their birth gender” and renounce homosexuality. The faith-based school decided to exclude gay, lesbian, and transgender students on religious grounds by enforcing a new enrolment contract with parents. It did this in a bid to enforce an ethos the school claims was based on Christian doctrine, taking literally the biblical teaching that “God created humankind in his image” and that “male and female he created them.” In some ways, the school’s action should come as no surprise: its website states explicitly that, as part of its mission, …