Beyondblue backs gay mental health
National depression initiative beyondblue will sink more than $344,000 into LGBTI mental health research projects.
Announced by beyondblue chair and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge yesterday, the money will go to three projects and cover topics including young people’s experience of homophobia in sport, and alcohol use and depression in bisexual and lesbian women.
Victoria University researcher Dr Caroline Symons welcomed a $122,000 grant to study the experiences of young people and if they have been bullied in sport because of their sexuality.
“Our earlier work revealed homophobia is a serious concern in club sport in urbanised areas,” Symons said.
“Now we want to extend the reach of our investigation to look at school sport, PE classes and club sport across Victoria, including country regions.”
The research will follow Symons’ groundbreaking 2010 report, Come Out To Play, which found widespread homophobia in sporting clubs in Victoria and revealed many survey participants said they would avoid certain sports because they were not deemed to be safe environments.
A further $151,439 will go to Melbourne University Associate Professor Ruth McNair to research the relationship between hazardous drinking, depression and anxiety in lesbian and bisexual women, while $71,500 will go to
Drummond Street Services, led by CEO Karen Field, to look at the risk and preventative factors for depression and anxiety in the LGBTI community.
Beyondblue has faced a storm of criticism in recent months over Kennett’s remarks about same-sex parenting. The organisation has also been accused of ignoring depression and anxiety in the LGBTI community in the past.
In response to Kennett’s remarks, two rival fundraising groups, Homovember and Fauxmember, were set up by community members to direct money away from charity group Movember which provides the bulk of its fundraising money to beyondblue.
Beyond Blue is broken. Sure it does some good work, but a lot of bad work that I have no doubt cost lives. I guess in this new era of turning back the clock on Civil Rights, such as the Liberal/National Party did, stripping our protections at work from the Equal Opportunity Act, our lives are simply not worth as much as others. The new era allows Health Minister Wooldridge to smile while we die, while we cannot get some government jobs, and while homophobic crimes are on the increase. So smile next to the Chairman of the Board of Beyond Blue who said employing us is like employing a child sex offender, but do not expect to me smile at your spin.
What is the cost of one bashing, from thugs who thought we deserve a killing, when Jeff Kennett said employing us is like employing paedophiles? What is the cost of a murder, inspired by the hate of Mental Health Minister Wooldridge, who had our protections removed from the State Equal Opportunity Act, in many areas of employment? How many of us have been murdered since the Liberal Party Attorney General told parliament, we are sick disease and we are destructive to society and ourselves?
(Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/libs-take-dim-view-of-homosexuals/2005/11/26/1132966006762.html ).
I do not want my taxes paying for them. Jeff Kennett is Ambassador and the Chairman of the Board for Beyond Blue. He has used Beyond Blue as a cloak of respectability. His CEO had to leave the day the she appeared on Joy.fm. I mean how do these people expect us to take them seriously?
When my first great love was bashed to death, apart from the agony I felt, there were the coroner’s inquest, the police investigation, the funeral and more. The money on offer from Wooldridge is well short of the cost of one hate crime inspired by the actions of her government. Crime does have a price on the community, it is time the Liberal/National Party were held to account for their crimes against humanity.
The Liberal/National Party are simply economic vandals. There is a huge cost excluding people from thousands of government funded jobs, based on your sexuality. You can work hard, study hard, but not get that job if you are in the GLBTI community. Wooldridge does even want us employed in many soup kitchens, disability services, home help services and more. She voted to exclude us from employing based on our sexuality.
Beyond Blue is a think tank on depression. It is not an academic group. It has a mixture of government sponsorship, corporate sponsorship, and private sponsorship. It is not open and transparent about who gives what amount of money, and simply has too many conflicts of interest to be taken seriously. When publishing guidelines on depression, it uses tabloid spin, often excluding high risk groups, as it is not an evidence based organization such as Therapeutic Guidelines. In short, it puts in opinion, and who wants to offend the Chairman of the Board-the boss Jeff Kennett?
Well, this is a great but very surprising news. I was always under the impression that exposing/fighting trans and homo phobic discrimination would be “too controversial” for BB (even-though we all know it was makes GLBTQ people depressed). Congratulations to the recipients of the grants for artfully wording your funding submissions!! Congratulations also to others (ie eg RJM & DP) for keeping the heat lamp on the sore spot. Would be interesting to know what horse trading happened between Jeff & Mary?????
Well, this is a great but very surprising news. I was always under the impression that exposing/fighting trans and homo phobic discrimination would be “too controversial” for BB (even-though we all know it was makes GLBTQ people depressed). Congratulations to the recipients of the grants for artfully wording your funding submissions!! Congratulations also to others (ie eg RJM & DP) for keeping the heat lamp on the sore spot.