Archive for Within Australia

Loss of a young life is a tragedy and national disgrace

// November 25th, 2016 // No Comments » // Media discussion, Within Australia

(trigger warning; homophobia & suicide)

Tyrone Unsworth’s suicide is a tragic loss of a child’s life due to years of homophobic bullying and insults at school.

We believe society must change inside AND outside the school gate to prevent this tragedy unfolding in many families’ lives – there’s a social policy vacuum than must be filled and a community of unfunded organisations and volunteers working in this space who need funding and support.

We know that Tyrone’s grieving family didn’t raise what was happening to Tyrone in the school yard with the school.

We also believe that the Safe Schools program could have been a game changer here, removing the silence around homophobia and violence in schools and outside the school gate in community, opening up communications and discussion to support Tyrone and his family.

Social policy action by the Commonwealth and Queensland governments could have started the work needed to change how society is ingrained with homophobia and prejudice outside the school gate.

And Tyrone and his family may have been strengthened and enabled to take the bullying up with his school well before he was pushed towards suicide.

The loss of a young 13 year old life to homophobic bullying and harassment at school is both a tragedy and a national disgrace.

Further reading:
http://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/brisbane-year-7-student-takes-own-life-after-being-bullied-for-sexuality

Supports:
Lifeline Australia – 13 11 14 – Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention
QLife – 1800 184 527 – 3pm to midnight – Australia’s first nationally-oriented counselling and referral service for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or intersex (LGBTI)

Hate crimes up in the UK post-Brexit. Will the Oz marriage plebiscite experience replicate this?

// October 10th, 2016 // No Comments » // International, Within Australia

Hate crimes against religion, ethnic minorities and now sexuality have all risen in the UK since the Brexit vote in June. The Anti-Violence Project asks will the Australian experience during and after the proposed marriage equality plebiscite be the same?

According to The Guardian, Galop, an LGBT anti-violence charity in the United Kingdom, has given support to around 187 LGBT people who have suffered from the hate crimes in the last few months since the Brexit vote was taken.

Is the rise in homophobic hate crime seen in the UK a disturbing trend that will seen when the far-right conservative values are given a voice larger than their place in a modern egalitarian society? Could this trend in the UK be a forerunner of events in Australia if the marriage plebiscite proceeds?

Check out the full Guardian article here:
http://attitude.co.uk/homophobic-attacks-rose-147-in-three-months-after-brexit-vote/

Premier Daniel Andrews full apology for old laws criminalising homosexual behaviour

// May 24th, 2016 // No Comments » // AVP news, Elders past and present, Media discussion, Within Australia, Within Victoria

“For a future that is strong and fair and just!” – Hon Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, May 24, 2016.

“Challenging some of the fundamental imbalances that today still stop gay men from reporting violence & harassment!” – Greg Adkins JP, executive director, Anti-Violence Project of Victoria Inc.

“(The) Apology is a powerful symbolic act to repair the harm caused by unjust laws & affirm the value of sexual difference” – Anna Brown, director Advocacy & Strategic Litigation, Human Rights Law Centre

Homophobes & bigots limber-up for the AFL’s Pride Round – are they a dying breed or on the rise in society?

// April 30th, 2016 // No Comments » // Media discussion, Research, Sport, Within Australia, Within Victoria

Grace

While homophobes and bigots attempt to make Aussie Rules Football the latest battleground in their fight against marriage equality, targeting St Kilda and Sydney AFL Football Clubs in a campaign to derail the AFL’s first Pride match in June, the unanswered question is “Are they a dying breed or increasing in numbers?”

Public support for marriage equality has dramatically risen. But just how rampant is homophobia in the sports-attending population; have hearts and minds changed? If so, by how much; if not, why not?

Research from 2005 revealed Melbourne’s Inner City to be least homophobic (14 per cent) and the Outer South & East suburbs the most. Outside Victoria, the study identified the three most and three least homophobic areas of Australia. Overall the most homophobic areas were the Moreton area of country Queensland (excluding the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast), Central/South-West Queensland and the Burnie/Western district of Tasmania where 50 per cent believed homosexuality is immoral.

Following Melbourne’s Inner City as least homophobic Australian metropolitan areas were Central Perth (21 per cent) and Central Melbourne (26 per cent).

The Anti-Violence Project is encouraging the AFL, LGBTI community organisations and the state government to use the pending AFL Pride match in June to see how much has changed in the hearts and minds of people leaving their suburban lounge-rooms to attend AFL football matches around the nation since the 2005 research.

Read more about homophobic flyers, targeting marriage equality and the AFL’s Pride match, left on spectators’ cars outside the VFL game between Sandringham and Footscray last weekend. The flyers were headlined: “Children deserve a mother and father”, here: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-season-2016-st-kilda-sydney-targeted-in-protest-against-afls-first-gay-pride-game-20160429-goi52g.html

Is it time for gay men displaying rampant transphobia to stop this behaviour?

// April 30th, 2016 // 1 Comment » // Within Australia

Grace

Is it time for gay men displaying rampant transphobia to stop their behaviour? Assault victim Stephanie McCarthy, writing in Star Observer, shares her shock at receiving transphobic attacks from the some in the gay community.

On Sunday, after hearing about the “Tranny Two Up” event at the (Sydney) Bank Hotel, she tweeted expressing her concern over the event and the possible negative outcomes from it and also, politely, expressed her concern on the Bank Hotel’s Facebook page. The attacks then started.

Is it time for this to be addressed within our community? What are your views.

Read more here: http://www.starobserver.com.au/opinion/gay-men-need-to-cut-out-the-transphobia/148838?cs=62

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).

Read more here:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/lgbti-groups-vying-for-space-in-the-multimilliondollar-pride-centre-20160421-goc0jv.html

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

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.

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.

Read more here:
http://indaily.com.au/news/national/2016/02/04/anger-erupts-over-rainbow-noose-image/

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