antiviolence.info

AVP and other LGBTI groups hope to find a home in the Pride Centre

// April 21st, 2016 // No Comments » // AVP news, Media discussion, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Grace

Journalist Beau Donelly (The Age, April 21, 2016) writes that the Anti-Violence Project are hopeful they will find a home in Melbourne’s new Pride Centre, announced by the Andrews government on Wednesday. Tipped to be one of the world’s leading hubs for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, the $15 million centre is expected to be larger than its counterpart in San Francisco.

For the past 20 years, the group on the front line of supporting victims of homophobic attacks and same-sex domestic violence has been run from its board members’ garages and living rooms.

The Anti-Violence Project of Victoria does not have an office, so when its leadership team comes together once a month to discuss the charity’s future they meet in a Thai cafe in Fitzroy (photo of the AVP’s executive director, Greg Adkins by Simon O’Dwyer).

LGBTI Pride Centre is also a coup for Regional Victoria

// April 21st, 2016 // No Comments » // AVP news, Relationships, Within Victoria

A GAY Pride Centre to be built in Melbourne will be a coup for regional LGBTI people, according to a AVP’s Ballarat director consulted for the project.
Luke Gahan told the Ballarat Courier that he and another regional spokesperson from Shepparton were part of a wide consultation process for the centre.

Research into relationship experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

// April 11th, 2016 // No Comments » // Research, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Researchers at Flinders University, the University of Central Queensland, and the University of Sunderland are currently undertaking a project focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people’s experiences of close relationships, both with other humans and with animal companions.

Dr Damien Riggs, Dr Nik Taylor, and Dr Heather Fraser at Flinders University, Dr Catherine Donovan at the University of Sunderland, and Dr Tania Signal at the Central Queensland University aim to better understand your experiences of close relationships, both with other humans and with animal companions. Evidence from research with heterosexual cisgender people suggests that animals can be important sources of support, both for people who are not in relationships, and for people who are in relationships that are abusive. However there is no research on what animals mean for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) people in the context of their relationships and lives.

The AVP urges you to please take the time to complete this survey – follow this link:-
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LGBTAVDV

One in three in LGBTI community experiences street harassment – La Trobe University research reveals

// April 6th, 2016 // No Comments » // Research, Within Victoria

Grace

The Age newspaper today focuses on La Trobe University research that shines a light on the troubling behaviour many LGBTI people have to endure, often in plain sight, with about one in three having experienced street harassment.

La Trobe Researcher Bianca Fileborn (pictured above) surveyed 292 people throughout Australia, 54 per cent of whom identified as being sexually diverse, on their experiences.

Dr Fileborn said there was little difference between the types of harassment women and LGBTI people experienced. These include staring (65.1 per cent), comments (63 per cent), car horn honking (63.3 per cent), wolf-whistling (41.1 per cent) and unwanted conversation (42.5 per cent).

The Anti-Violence Project has long championed the cause of people experiencing street harassment and prejudice motivated violence, where an estimated 7 out of 10 people in metropolitan areas and 9 out of 10 in outer urban and regional/rural cities and towns are not reporting their experiences of violence and harassment to anyone.

AVP executive director Greg Adkins said “The saddest thing is that many LGBTI people think this (street harassment) is something they have to learn to accept; that it’s something that’s going to happen to them anyway. That’s just really sad and misplaced. No one should face harassment because of their gender or sexuality.”

People experiencing street harassment, prejudice motivated violence or relationship violence can report their experiences via the AVP website.

Third-party and assisted violence reporting links to VicPol needed

// March 15th, 2016 // No Comments » // AVP news, Media discussion, Relationship violence, Trans and Gender Diverse, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Grace

Violence impacts the LGBTi community yet remains vastly under-reported. According to the state’s LGBTi Anti-Violence Project this hides the true nature and extent of harassment and violence in Victoria and nationwide.

The AVP has asked Victoria Police to partner with them and other LGBTi community organisations to help reduce harm for LGBTi individuals while also enhancing the range of ways violence can be reported, how reports are accepted by Victoria Police and becoming integrated into their data systems and how those impacted by violence can be triaged more effectively from experiencing violence towards the supports necessary to provide support to them.

This need has been long discussed and the research available for many years but what is missing is a mechanism to pull the threads together”, says AVP executive director Greg Adkins.

“Whatever the source of violence, street harassment, relationship violence or lateral violence between individuals, if the necessary work can be undertaken to bring police, unfunded community-led organisations and other non-government organisations who are funded to provide services to victims of violence, more closely together then the whole society stands to gain.

“Service gaps will be readily identified, gaps in current police resources to fully address the actual extent of violence can then be identified and planned for, and funding gaps for unfunded community-led organisations working in this space can be plugged.

“Community, police, government working together in a new whole-of-life approach to violence impacting LGBTI people.

“In 2016 only a small percentage of LGBTi individuals report their experiences of violence to anyone, the needs of the majority of victims is unknown and healthy outcomes for individuals are delayed well beyond what the broad society would expect is acceptable. This means the long-term cost for society blows out of proportion to the policy solution that should be put in place today.

Have a safe enjoyable White Night!

// February 20th, 2016 // No Comments » // Media discussion, Within Victoria

Grace

Its Saturday night 20 February 2016 and Melbourne’s city streets are now outdoor arts spaces with music, theatre, visual art and light shows on display. Yes, White Night is back for its third incarnation.

Many people ignorant of the diverse communities that make up our capital city will be rubbing shoulders in our city streets, some for the first time.

White Night attracts thousands of people, and we’ll all gather through to the early hours to see works by local and international artists. The same sex attracted and gender diverse community are entitled to enjoy the night in safety with respect alongside the broader community.

The first sign of anyone acting out their prejudices and phobias verbally or physically towards you or your friends, is the exact moment you talk to the nearest police member or the nearest security person or council worker to radio police for you. You can also call police on 000.

When safe, let us at the Anti-Violence Project know of your experience via https://antiviolence.info/report-violence/ and we’ll encourage better planning for safer White Nights in future

Anger erupts over rainbow noose image – harmfull effects of Marriage Plebiscite in question

// February 4th, 2016 // No Comments » // AVP news, Media discussion, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Fears about the dangers to the LGBTI community over the Federal government’s proposed marriage plebiscite have been revealed as accurate after an anti-same-sex marriage lobby group posted an image of a woman with a rainbow noose around her neck in its latest social media campaign.

Anything that allows prejudice and homophobia to have an acceptable public platform is dangerous and un-Australian and will damage the health and lives of vulnerable people in the LGBTI community, says the AVP.

Grace

Same-sex partner bereavement study – participants wanted

// January 16th, 2016 // No Comments » // Research, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Same-sex partner bereavement study – participants wanted by a Monash University research team who aim to investigate the experience of same-sex-attracted individuals who have lost a partner to non-AIDS-related causes. This study will provide valuable information regarding the supports that help individuals through bereavement.

Follow this link to participate:-
http://monasheducation.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_51RaR3DeMgxkRFP

Queer men are victims of street harassment nobody talks about

// November 28th, 2015 // No Comments » // Around the globe, AVP news, International, Media discussion, Relationship violence, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Grace

This week we observed White Ribbon day and discussed how pervasive and destructive masculinity can be towards women.

However as Derrick Clifton writes in The Guardian, ‘uncomfortable, if not traumatizing, experiences (of harassment of gay men) get swept under the rug, or worse, internalised as something that “just happens” and shouldn’t be taken seriously’, revealing that many gay men, too, cope silently with harassment and consent issues in male dominated social spaces.

In Australia, governments are yet to turn their social policy lens and budgetary spends towards violence and harassment targeting the LGBTI community. The AVP believes that this makes Clifton’s argument, that its time to have more of a conversation about how the misogyny and patriarchy imbued in rape culture targets gay and gender non-conforming men, a very real and timely conversation to be had.

Read the full article here:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/27/queer-men-like-victims-street-harassment-nobody-talks-about?CMP=share_btn_tw

White Ribbon Day – Walk Against Family & Relationship Violence

// November 25th, 2015 // No Comments » // AVP news, Media discussion, Relationship violence, Relationships, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Grace

We in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community have grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts and other family members who have been and will be victims of relationship and family violence at the hands of men.

The abuse of power within many relationships is a common thread that joins the broader community to our LGBTI community in our shared experience of family and relationship violence where patterns of power, control and violence have been passed on and learned from male family members.

With great sadness we note that one in three women has experienced family and relationship violence and that family and relationship violence is also the silent epidemic within the LGBTI community despite being the subject of increasing scrutiny in heterosexual relationships. One in three LGBTI couples experience family and relationship violence echoing the general population. Additionally many women within the LGBTI community have experienced relationship violence with men before coming-out as same-sex attracted.

We say, with determination, on White Ribbon Day, that the Anti-Violence Project of Victoria recognises and acknowledges that our joint LGBTI and broader heterosexual Victoria and Australia community, cannot be safe until family and relationship violence by men in our society is named, called out as being unacceptable and is dealt with in a way so that it cannot reoccur and is prevented from being passed-on to future generations.

Just as relationship and family violence by men in the broader community is under-reported, we acknowledge homophobia and prejudice motivated violence against the LGBTI community is another form of violence emanating from mens’ behaviour and being passed on through generations.

We call on the Australian and State governments to increase data collection on all forms of violence driven by mens’ behaviour, to develop new strategic public policy, to fund front-line services supporting all victims of family and relationship violence and increase funding and infrastructure to support a community-led response to under-reported violence in all its forms.