Fun Fast Facts:

Updated:   5 May 2014   (The plight of LGBTI refugees)

• Refugees are defined by the United Nations Refugee Convention:
  “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”.
• Under the refugee convention there is no category for persecution on the basis of same-sex attraction or gender identity.
• Some countries include LGBTI refugees under the part of the definition with refers to ‘membership of a particular social group’.
• However, defining what being LGBTI is becomes difficult with each country taking different approaches to making a refugee ‘prove’ their LGBTI status.
• The Australian Refugee Review Tribunal has held that people who are not ‘out’ in their home countries (often through fear of persecution), are as a result, not genuinely fearful of persecution on the basis of sexuality.

Updated:   28 Apr 2014   (International reputation at risk over unresolved human rights violations)

• Australia has the world’s fourth highest number of human rights violations recorded against its name by the United Nations, but has taken action to remedy only 18% of these violations.
• Some of the nation’s leading human rights lawyers and campaigners have founded this new NGO to focus on getting Australia to act on UN concern about specific human rights violations.
• Australia has been found to be in violation of its international legal obligations 33 times, but it has remedied only six.

Updated:   6 Jan 2014   (Queering Disasters)

• In Australia, heatwaves have caused the greatest loss of life of any natural disaster although many have also lead to bushfires which tend to gain more media attention. Unlike bushfires, there is generally no escaping a heatwave.
• The top 5 natural disasters causing death in Australia are:
  • Victorian heat wave (Dec 1938 – Feb 1939) caused 438 deaths and sparked the Black Friday bushfires
  • South-eastern Australia heatwave (1895–1896) causing 437 deaths including 47 in the New South Wales town of Bourke alone
  • Cyclone Mahina (1899) left an estimated 410 people dead when it made landfall at Bathurst Bay, Queensland
  • South-eastern Australia heatwave (25 Jan to 9 Feb 2009) that left 374 people dead and sparked the Black Saturday bushfires
  • A heat wave in 1908 in the southern states leaving 246 people dead.

• Cyclone Yasi was a Category 5 cyclone that hit far north Queensland on 3 February 2011 registering sustained wind speeds of 205 km/h with gusts up to 285km/h.
• A series of floods in December 2010-January 2011 hit Queensland resulting in 75% of the state declared a disaster zone. The floods also engulfed parts of Brisbane city with a damage bill estimated to have cost $2.39billion.

Updated:   25 Jan 2012   (The Australia You Don’t Know)

• Same-sex marriage is illegal in all states, but de facto unions are welcome.
• All states have passed anti-discrimination laws.
• Adoption and foster parenting by same-sex couples is illegal in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

The plight of LGBTI refugees

Broadcast: 5 May 2014

W3JOY interviewed: Senthorun Raj from the University of Sydney

“Some of the challenges in terms of recognising people’s sexual identities or gender identities alongside what constitutes a valid ground for persecution remains a widely shared problem not only in Australia but in other parts of the world.”
 
“One of the biggest concerns is the fact that there is enormous amounts of discretion when it comes to the kinds of questions that adjudicators or departmental officials are able to ask asylum seekers. The sorts of questions that can be asked include questions around not only sexual experience but also the number of sexual partners an applicant may have had, the kinds of clubs or associations they belong to, how they understand what being gay means, when they realised they were gay…the sorts of questions that are difficult for an ordinary person to talk about, let alone someone who is fleeing a context of homophobia or transphobia.”
 
“There is still a lot of stereotypes used in adjudicating these claims”
 
“When you’re an asylum seeker or a refugee and you are fleeing a context of war or conflict, your ability to gather documentation or written evidence of your situation is limited. And when you think about the fact that people’s experiences of their sexual identity or gender identity can be enormously private and enormously personal, it’s very hard to find if you like corroborating evidence of that.”

Listen to the podcast

International reputation at risk over unresolved human rights violations

Broadcast: 28 Apr 2014

LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Remedy Australia

• Remedy Australia is a supporter-based organisation with a mandate to get Australia to comply with UN decisions on human rights complaints, both past and future. Australia is obliged to remedy individual violations and ensure they never happen again.
• Remedy Australia launched by sending a report to the United Nations following-up all Australian cases to date and assessing Australia’s progress in remedying each violation. The results are not good. Australia has remedied only 18% of complaints upheld against it so far.

W3JOY interviewed: Olivia Ball of Remedy Australia

“The problem is that the United Nations can decide that Australia has violated a human right… but it can do nothing really to enforce its decisions. It can’t make Australia comply.”
 
“Anyone can complain to the United Nations if their human rights are violated. It’s simple to the extent that you don’t need to have a lawyer, you don’t need to have any special application form, you don’t need to pay any fees. To that extent it is simple. The difficulty is that you have to have tried everything available to you in Australia first.”
 
“It’s available to people in Australia to complain but it’s also relatively safe for people to complain. You’re very unlikely to encounter backlash. The government is not going to come and get you in Australia whereas in other countries you might get a knock on the door in the middle of the night if you’ve complained to the UN.”
 
“The most frequent complaint that has been upheld is arbitrary detention. Nineteen times the United Nations has condemned arbitrary detention in Australia. Nineteen times the United Nations has said to Australia ‘stop doing it’ but we haven’t stopped.”

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Queering Disasters

Broadcast: 6 Jan 2014

LGBTIQ-friendly research: Queering Disasters, The Experiences of LGBTI Communities Impacted By Natural Disasters, University of Western Sydney and University of Sydney

• Researchers are investigating how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Australians have been impacted by natural disasters. Specifically, they are investigating the impacts of natural disasters such as Cyclone Yasi on residents of Far North Queensland, the 2011 floods on residents of Brisbane and bushfires such as Black Saturday in Victoria.
• According to one of the project’s chief investigators, Dr Andrew Gorman-Murray, research in other parts of the world has shown that LGBTI populations can be particularly vulnerable during the impact and recovery phases of a disaster. “We know that during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, for example, LGBTI people experienced significant levels of discrimination in accessing emergency shelters”, Dr Gorman-Murray stated. “Similarly, in Haiti after the earthquake there in 2010, LGBTI people were subject to abuse and violence while trying to obtain basic support. This shows that the impacts of these disasters aren’t necessarily ‘natural’, but are tied up with a range of social factors”.
• The project’s other chief investigator, Associate Professor Dale Dominey-Howes, regularly advises governments on the development of emergency management policies and procedures. He believes that the importance of this project lies in making sure that the needs of LGBTI Australians are met by governments and other organisations.
• If you identify as LGBTI, are over 18 years of age and have been impacted by natural disasters, you can participate in this project by completing an online survey. To participate or for more information, contact Dr Scott McKinnon at S.Mckinnon(at)uws.edu.au.

W3JOY interviewed: Dr Scott McKinnon, Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the University of Western Sydney

“Women can be more vulnerable to a disaster impact. An example of that is that in most places around the world, women are still the primary carers for children and so if at the time a disaster strikes you are not only looking after your own safety but after the safety of the children that are with you then how does that effect your vulnerability?”
 
“There’s data suggesting that some LGBT people will prefer to take their chances at home rather than what they see as a dangerous thing in going to an emergency shelter”
 
“A lot of the services providing support to people who are impacted by disasters tend to be outsourced by governments and they are often outsourced to religious groups. And those religious groups are generally exempt from anti-discrimination legislation”
 
“A lot of people are really still recovering from the impacts of that flood [2011 Brisbane floods]. There’s a feeling that while the rest of society has moved on, they are really struggling to get back to a sense of normalcy”
 
“The areas with higher gay and lesbian populations in Brisbane being New Farm and West End, both of these areas were really heavily impacted by the flood so there was a really significant impact on the LGBT population. In some way that creates this sense of ‘greater impact, greater difficulty’ but I think in other ways there is a kid of sense of resilience in that the LGBT community in Brisbane stepped up to support itself in this event”

Listen to the podcast

The Australia You Don’t Know

2 Part Show Broadcast: 25 Jan 2012 & 1 Feb 2012

LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Freedom Centre

• Freedom Centre is run by young people for young people using a peer support model.
• Volunteers and staff are people who are also young and same sex attracted, sex and/or gender diverse and are trained to be able to give support and information to their peers.
• Freedom Centre started out in 1994 as a part of the “Other Voices” program in Gay Men’s Education at the WA AIDS Council (WAAC).
• Freedom Centre is funded by the Mental Health Commission as part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

W3JOY interviewed: Phil Walcott, Independent MP from the Northern Territory

“It’s a very easy place to be in. Alice [Springs] is one of those places where you learn to become a human being, not a human doing.”
 
“That sense of tolerance is moving into acceptance.”
 
“As long as you’re doing a good job, that is what people are going to mark you on.”

W3JOY interviewed: David Meija, El Salvadorian-born Australian

“I had never, ever been the victim of an overt racist attack or comment, but it does exist in subtle ways.”
 
“The Australian Constitution was a racist document and it still allows for racist laws to be passed.”
 
“It’s the not overt calling people names or excluding them, by actually saying ‘This is why I don’t like you because you’re this colour’….It’s all these underhand, subtle things that you can’t place. In many ways, they’re a lot more damaging because you can’t say this is happening here for this reason.”
 
“When you’re working in a rural community you’ve got a smaller population. You’ve got less access to services. The services that you might have might not be supportive. You might not feel you can go to your local Aboriginal medical service and say ‘Look, I think I might be gay’ or I might have been exposed to HIV or whatever.”
 
“If you live and work in rural and regional areas, you’re probably not going to stand up and say, ‘Yes I’m Aboriginal and I’m also gay.’ It takes a certain amount of self-awareness and you have to be upwardly social mobile.”
 
“There are other parts of the country that have X amount of regional sexual health workers….there’s a lot of space to fall through loopholes.”
 
“Doing something to a community is nowhere near as effective as doing something with a community.”

W3JOY interviewed: Adam Sutton, gay horseman and co-author of Say It Out Loud (as well as co-author Neil MacMahon)

“I’m one of those people that’s never learned a lesson slowly, I’ve always learned it quickly. When there’s an opportunity put in front of you, you take it.”

On coming out:

“It was my biggest fear. Some of those other crazy things I did I did to suppress my inner fear of myself, I suppose. It was my biggest fear, I was scared of myself.”
 
“Believe in yourself, and there’s nobody better qualified than you.”

On living in country Victoria:

“Old school is old school and it always will be old school. you have to accept that, too. Just like the other people accept there’s everybody in this world. If that’s their belief, and that’s what they believe in and they don’t want to change, well, that’s OK as well.”
 
“There are some parts of the country culture that will be like that for a while. Change doesn’t happen quickly, it takes a generation or two generations for change to happen. It’s slowly happening in Australia, it comes slowly and gradually.”

W3JOY interviewed: Alice Newport-Holden of Pride WA

“Another big issue that we have in WA are mental health issues, especially with youth…the statistics that surround it are quite horrific…LGBTI youth are more likely to suffer from quite serious mental health issues.”
 
“We’re lucky to have such good organisations in WA. We have a lot of people surrounding those organisations that want to help.”
 
“Things are improving…we’re quite lucky to have a lot of active groups…a lot of reform has happened over the past years and state law is on its way to becoming gender-neutral, which is a massive, massive step for the removal of discrimination.”
 
“We’re looking to become the main representative group in WA.”
 
“It Gets Better AU actually launched in Perth.”
 
“We hopefully remove some of the anxiety and the issues that come with coming out and not feeling part of a community. You know, you’re 18 and you’re in the world and there’s this whole massive gay community in front of you. It can be extremely daunting.”
 
“There’ll be a big focus with mental health and youth for us to work with over the next five year. Because they’re our future!”

W3JOY interviewed: Jacob Lee of South Australia

“I didn’t really pay that much attention to politics and the attitudes of the church when I was growing up. In my household, there wasn’t very anti-gay attitudes. It was more like gay people were funny people that you kind of make fun of and make jokes of and stuff. But you never vilify them of anything.”
 
“One of the big legal restrictions is access to adoptions and IVF…I guess that’s the one legal challenge to gay and lesbian people in South Australia.”

W3JOY interviewed: David Hunt of South Australia

“Because it’s very strong in the arts, it’s very easy to be gay in Adelaide.”
 
“One of these gay guys that I’m still very good friends with to this day, he went to a psychiatrist to try to be ‘not gay’ anymore. He was having shock treatment and everything….One night he went to a gay party and the psychiatrist was there.”

W3JOY interviewed: Terry of Let’s Get Equal South Australia

“Back in 2000, we didn’t have even de facto rights. We had had a wonderful push for gay rights in the 70’s. Since then , our rights had very much stagnated in most ways, and all the other states and territories had moved on. We were left holding the wooden spoon.”
 
“We finally got de facto rights, they came though in 2006. Since then we have managed to move on and we’ve only just got through presumption of parentage which enabled two women to go on the birth certificate. In SA at the moment, we don’t have access to Artificial Reproductive Technologies unless you’re medically infertile. So we’re still actually behind all the states and territories.”
 
“A lot of the general population that we speak to already think that we’ve got those rights.”

Listen to the podcasts

Part 1