An Australian school principal resigned after education officials directed her to host “Wear It Purple Day” promoting gay and transgender ideology among primary school students as young as 4 years old.
Wear It Purple is an annual LGBTQIA+SB awareness event held across Australian schools, workplaces, and community groups, with the acronym standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual, with SB adding Sistergirl and Brotherboy to include gender-diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Organizers state the event aims to build “safer and more inclusive environments.” The 2026 theme, “Colors of Courage,” celebrated Aug. 28, highlighted “bravery” required to drive change in institutions where conversations about LGBTQIA+SB topics rarely occur.
Janelle Rowe, former principal of Bonython Primary School in Canberra, served in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) public education system for 34 years. Rather than celebrating Wear It Purple Day, Rowe requested to swap the event for Bullying No Way Week, a national anti-bullying initiative covering all children regardless of the reason they experience bullying.
“I believe Wear It Purple Day is not a harmless dress-up day,” Rowe told The Daily Telegraph. “It requires teachers to explain what these lifestyles are about to children, and I don’t feel it’s the place of schools to be talking about sexualized issues with infants and primary students. At age 4 through to 12, these are still issues for parents and for families.”
Following her decision, the ACT Education Directorate summoned Rowe to its head office, presented her with a list of internal allegations, reported that staff members were ready to quit over her stance and placed her under direct supervision.
David Miklos, a writer for the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), noted that one staff member privately admitted to Rowe, “I completely agree with you, but I would never say anything.”
Rowe submitted a three-page reply to the directorate after receiving what she described as a “pointed question” asking if she would wear purple and participate in the event. Choosing to stick to her convictions, she resigned.
Meeting with Rowe, Miklos expected to encounter a “hard-done-by, fire-breathing campaigner,” he recently wrote.
“Instead, I met a warm, measured, highly capable and articulate educator, wholly committed to her calling and the children at the heart of it,” Miklos wrote. “Janelle is a woman who had to leave the profession she was made for, who is shell-shocked and inwardly grieving at what her beloved vocation has become, and who is still, in every way that matters, a principal.”
Freedom of Information records from the directorate’s own files showed past performance reviews describing Rowe as “outstanding” and “highly capable,” with one supervisor writing, “the best leader I have ever worked with in my 40-year career.”
Miklos noted that Rowe never objected to the color purple itself. Instead, she objected to requiring teachers to explain sexual identity acronyms to children as young as 4 – a requirement she believed breached teacher codes of conduct and child-safe standards regarding age-inappropriate sexualized content.
“She was applying the policy she had been trained on,” Miklos wrote, pointing out that Wear It Purple organizers state participation should be voluntary for both students and staff. “It was not voluntary for Janelle.”
While the public school system failed to back Rowe, support arrived from unexpected quarters once her story went public. Miklos noted that supporters included “a lesbian mother of a 4-year-old, a gay man, and a woman who says plainly she is not a Christian.”
When officials told Rowe she was taking this stance only because she is a Christian, Miklos noted that while faith explained Rowe’s convictions, it did not explain the support coming from non-Christians.
Referencing Ephesians 6:13, where the Apostle Paul encourages Christians, “having done all, to stand,” Miklos wrote: “‘Stand’ is a defensive verb. Janelle was not trying to take ground; she declined to give any up.”
Miklos called for prayer for Rowe, for school staff who share her views privately to speak out publicly, and for Australian primary school children.
“Pray that common sense returns to those who set policy for our schools – that a child in kindergarten should not be introduced to adult questions of sexuality and gender by the state,” Miklos urged.
The Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA) has officially taken up Rowe’s case.
“HRLA is standing with Janelle because freedom of conscience must include the freedom to respectfully question prevailing policies without fear of professional punishment,” the organization said in a statement.
