The list of authorised texts for senior-level English classes at Australia’s secondary schools has only two books that reflect relationships “outside of the heterosexual norm”, according to research by Queensland University of Technology.
Kelli McGraw and Lisa van Leent from the university’s education faculty analysed a list of 21 fiction and non-fiction books recommended by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
They found that F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night were the only two that portrayed diverse sexual identities.