The Safe Schools Coalition aims to equip schools with the information and resources to support students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

It operates on an opt-in basis and will be offered to Tasmanian schools this year.

A letter against the initiative was signed by religious leaders –  including the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, the Right Reverend John Harrower, and the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Julian Porteous –  and circulated to state school principals and associations in January.

‘‘We are deeply concerned about the divisive content and detrimental impact that this particular program could have on school communities,’’ the letter said.

‘‘While we deplore all forms of bullying and welcome the intent of anti-bullying programs, the content of the SSCA program focuses only on the bullying of same-sex attracted, ‘intersex’ and ‘gender diverse’ students – not addressing the range of other more common forms of bullying.’’

ACL state director Mark Brown said yesterday that the organisation believed  Safe Schools had an ideological agenda.

A brochure from the National Civic Council titled ''Radical sexual agenda pushed on Aussie kids'' accompanied the document.

The brochure stated that: ''Most teens who experience same-sex attraction become opposite-sex attracted in adulthood ... Students with current same-sex attractions should not be encouraged to embrace activity linked with serious health risks.''

Children’s Commissioner Mark Morrissey, Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Robin Banks, Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman Rodney Croome and Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations president Jenny Eddington were among the signatories in support of the Safe Schools Coalition program.

The strongly worded letter pointed out that similar programs have been in place in Tasmanian schools for almost 20 years and that the Education Department has an obligation to take action against discrimination based on attributes including sexual and gender identity.

‘‘Inclusive schools are productive schools,’’ the letter said.

‘‘Bullying damages not just the lives of young people and their educational opportunities but the morale and cohesion of school communities.’’

Safe Schools national program director Sally Richardson said four Tasmanian schools, including some in the North, had indicated an interest in participating in the program.

She said programs targeted at LGBTI students were necessary as data showed that people from that demographic were more at risk of bullying, assault, self-harm and suicide.

‘‘The support they’re trying to stop will really leave children in harmful situations,’’ she said.

‘‘We’ve had generic bullying programs in this country for many, many years but I think it’s by now shown that schools are ill-equipped to deal with homophobic and transphobic bullies.’’

She said 80 per cent of homophobia and transphobia occurred in schools, with between 2 and 5 per cent of young people identifying as transgender or gender diverse.