Pride heads to Wollongong

The Illawarra region’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community will get ‘shirty’ at the local launch of the national Wear It With Pride campaign.

In July last year, the federal Government amended 85 pieces of legislation which discriminated against same-sex couples in areas such as employee entitlements, privacy rights, tax, superannuation, child support and insurance. The new education campaign aims to increase awareness and understanding of these reforms among members of Australia’s LGBT community.

The Wear It With Pride campaign is based around a series of 85 designer T-shirts, with each shirt linked to one of the 85 historic reforms. Organisers are encouraging same-sex couples and other LGBT community members to learn more about their new rights and responsibilities by visiting the campaign website — www.wearitwithpride.com.au — and finding out which ‘shirts’ fit them.

The Commonwealth-funded campaign is being produced by ACON on behalf of the National LGBT Health Alliance.

ACON Illawarra manager Radda Jordan said she hopes the campaign will inspire local LGBT community members to find out more about the new laws.

“Despite the continuing debate around same-sex marriage and adoption, these new laws represent an important milestone for human rights in this country, an achievement of which we can all be proud,” Jordan said.

“They also mean a range of new and amended entitlements for same-sex couples, so I encourage all local LGBT community members to visit the website or to contact ACON’s Illawarra office for more information about the impact these new laws will have on their lives.”

The Illawarra launch will feature local LGBT community member and SES officer David Webber who will demonstrate which T-shirts ‘fit’ him.

Campaign coordinator Corey Irlam will be on hand to answer questions about the Wear It With Pride campaign and representatives from the Illawarra Legal Centre will also be present to answer any questions about the law reforms.

info: The Illawarra Wear It With Pride launch and information seminar is on Thursday, March 25 at 6pm at ACON Illawarra Community Space, 18 Ellen St, Wollongong. Call 4226 1168 or email [email protected] or visit www.acon.org.au for details.