LISTEN TO
LGBTIQ Rights in Australia
SBS English
10:46
LGBTI is a collective term referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people.
Equality Australia’s legal director Ghassan Kassisieh explains that some cultures, however, do not have specific terms to describe people with an alternative sexual orientation or those who identify as another gender.
So we’re talking about people who have romantic and sexual attractions to people of their own gender, and we’re talking about people whose gender, so, male, female and other genders isn’t necessarily congruent with the gender that other people knew them at birth.
LGBTI is a collective term referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people. Source: Getty Images/Gerardo Barreto/EyeEm
History of LGBTIQ Rights in Australia
Homosexuality was a criminal offence in Australia under the influence of British imperial law.
In New South Wales, men who engaged in same-sex intercourse were sentenced to life imprisonment until 1924.
In Victoria, on the other hand, homosexual acts were punishable by death until 1949.
Although different states started decriminalising homosexual acts after South Australia changed its law in 1975, it wasn’t until 1997 when Tasmania became the last Australian jurisdiction to legalise homosexual acts.
Conversion therapy
A 2018
joint report by the Human Rights Law Centre, La Trobe University and Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria
estimates that up to 10 per cent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer Australians are still subject to conversion therapy.It is a painful experience for many including former pastor Andre Afamasaga who for years tried everything he could to change his sexuality.
It’s just this ideology that being gay is broken and that there is something wrong with you and that to be gay means that you are faulty, and you are damaged goods and that god needs to fix you.
Despite being raised in a loving Christian Samoan family, Afamasaga carried the shame and guilt of being gay throughout most of his life.
I remember being really young, as young as eight years old, and I knew that I was gay. At that point, I would say, god, please take these feelings away from me.
Statistics from the National LGBTI Health Alliance found that LGBTI young people aged between 16 to 27 are five times more likely to attempt suicide in their lifetime than their heterosexual counterparts.
As for Afamasaga, despite being deeply religious and a former pastor, the inability to reconcile his religious values with his homosexuality made him ponder the possibility of giving up his life at one stage.
I just had the overwhelming sense that the loneliness that I’d been feeling for all these years that was going to be the rest of my life and so that’s when the suicidal thoughts started to become really pronounced.
Those feelings ultimately forced Afamasaga to come out of the closet to confront his true identity.
Harassment and discrimination
The 2014 statistics released by the Australian Human Rights Commission found that six in ten lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people have experienced verbal homophobic abuse, whereas two in ten have experienced physical homophobic abuse.
The rates were significantly higher for transgender men followed by transgender women.
In order to ensure that every 11 in 100 Australians who identify as LGBTI receive adequate social and health services, Equality Australia is advocating for questions on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics to be included in the census.
Deeply entrenched social prejudice towards queer people meant that people of colour who are already subject to racial discrimination face more challenges according to neuropsychologist Dr Judy Tang, president of the Australian LGBTIQ Multicultural Council, AGMC.
Stop Homophobia sign Source: Getty Images/Jason Taellious
She feels that LGBTIQ people have to cut themselves up into different parts whenever they go to each particular community or section of society.
So, for example, it feels like if we go into a LGBTI space, we have to leave our multicultural, our ethnicity at the door and then on the flip side, if we go to multicultural spaces, we have to leave LGBTI-ness outside the door so it feels like we never can be 100% ourselves.
LGBTIQ Rights today
In 2008, the Rudd government removed discrimination against same-sex couples in federal laws such as superannuation schemes, social security, workers’ compensation, taxation, immigration, citizenship, aged care and health.
Ghassan Kassisieh says reforms that took place since the 80s were important precursors to the legal recognition of today's same-sex relationships in Australia.
That gave them the same kinds of rights that any married couple would have, gave them rights like adoption, inheritance, the ability to see a partner in hospital and make decisions about the funeral of their partner or to inherit the estate of their partner.
Since December 2017, following a nationwide postal survey with 61.6% of the population supporting marriage equality, same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Australia.
Couples have also been able to adopt children in all Australian states and territory as of April 2018.
Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli,chief editor of , an anthology of Australian multicultural queer adventures, says the ability for same-sex couples to raise children is a game changer for some migrant families.
Same-sex couple getting married. Source: Getty Images/Maskot
Even though their parents may have had a difficult time accepting them, once there’s a child, once there’s a marriage in place, the older people will step up and say there’s a child in the family now.
Ghassan Kassisieh says broader social reforms still need to occur for every Australian to enjoy the same rights.
Ghassan believes they should include for example - people being allowed to have birth certificates that reflect the gender they live in rather than the gender that was assumed for them at birth.
We’re looking at broader social discrimination and attitudes that remain that prevent people being able to live out their best selves like in the workplace or when they go to school and we’re also looking at some ideas that existed around how bodies need to look and be based on sex.
It wasn’t until late 1973 when the Australian Medical Association removed homosexuality from its list of illnesses and disorders.
Kassisieh believes many migrant communities still hold backward views around sexuality and gender. He sees these perceptions as a barrier to universal equality.
Having conducted extensive research on Australia’s multicultural LGBTI community as a senior lecturer with Deakin University’s School of Health and Social Development, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli says real social change starts from the family.
She says that for many of our LGBTI people the level of discrimination can be more from within their communities.
When I look at every story, every life in Living and Loving in Diversity and in the research we’re doing, the more traditionally religious the family or the community is, unfortunately the more discrimination the LGBTI person will feel.
If you’re struggling and need to talk to someone right now, call Lifeline crisis support on 13 11 14, Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467, 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged 5 to 25).
More information is available at Beyond Blue.org.au and lifeline.org.au.