The Informer

30 May 2016

Victoria’s Gender and Sexuality Commissioner Rowena Allen calls for more research into LBTQ women’s health

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Rowena Allen says LBQ women’s health needs to be more of a priority

Following last week’s annual Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women’s Health Conference at the Victorian AIDS Council, Stephanie speaks with Commissioner Rowena Allen who says more work needs to be done in understanding the specialist health needs of LBTQ women.

“Compared to heterosexual women there’s not a lot of focus on health promotion in this area so it’s really important that we actually start collecting data,” Commissioner Allen says.

In light of the conference and National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June), Emma and Stephanie take a closer look at some of the health and wellbeing issues facing Australian Indigenous LBTQ women, and some of the inherent challenges of being a minority within a minority.

The team hear from Sydney’s University’s Dr Vanessa Lee, a social epidemiologist and also the co-chair of a community led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Special Interest Group whose philosophy is ‘for the people, by the people’. Lee says there is a lack of sexuality and gender identification amongst the Australian Indigenous community and there needs to be a shift in language for this to change.

“The word ‘silence’ in the Aboriginal culture means that you reflect and you find the words and you talk about it. Silence in the non Indigenous culture means it’s a dirty little secret,” says Lee.

We also catch up on all the latest LGBT headlines with Shannon Power from the Star Observer.

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