Rebecca Fawcett Makes History As First Out & Proud LGBTQIA+ Leader Of An Aussie National Trade Union

Rebecca Fawcett once imagined she’d grow up to write beautiful novels. But then, she spent Mardi Gras night in 1996 at home watching John Howard win the election. She quickly found her way into the union movement after that.

“He recruited me, essentially,” Fawcett laughs as she chats to Star Observer.

Fawcett joined the CPSU (Community and Public Sector Union), one of the country’s biggest trade unions, in 2001. Last month, she was named the union’s new the National Secretary.

She is believed to be the first openly LGBTQIA+ person to lead a national trade union in Australia – a landmark moment for our community.

And while Fawcett is deeply proud of this, her humility and tenaciously unionist mindset of ‘us’ rather than ‘me’ genuinely shines through – so, after I say congratulations, she’s gracious in her thanks, but doesn’t linger on the topic. This lesbian’s got a whole damn trade union to lead, after all.

“I really do hope that that affirms and sends a signal to members of our union, and workers everywhere, that you get to bring your whole self to work,” says Fawcett, smiling.

“You are welcome and celebrated, no matter who you are.”

Growing up, Fawcett learned the importance of public education, healthcare and social security. She also learned that none of it appeared by magic: trade unionists fearlessly fought over decades for every inch.

When the Howard government started to “slash and burn our safety nets”, she got involved. “I got active… and I realised my heart was with the Australian trade union movement.”

That still shapes her goals today. CPSU members are bargaining for better pay and conditions during the cost-of-living crisis, and Fawcett also wants stronger protections as AI changes workplaces.

I ask what she hopes to achieve in her time leading the CPSU: “To leave a stronger union behind, but also leave a more diverse and inclusive union behind.”

For queer workers, that means rights we sorely need. In the last bargaining round, the CPSU won 18 weeks of paid parental leave for both parents, regardless of gender.

Now, Fawcett says, her union is striking out for surrogacy leave. She knows first-hand those details matter, particularly for rainbow families. Fawcett says her daughters are “little feminists who fly the rainbow flag very, very high,” and her partner is always in her corner.

“Being part of the queer community is vital to me, my partner and our families. My partner Morgan is incredibly supportive and understanding – they are a goalie for The Flying Bats, and they do this as I focus much of my energy on the union movement. Between us we have four glorious kids.”

Fawcett runs me through the CPSU’s remarkably queer history. The union marched in Mardi Gras in 1994 – a time when many had turned their back due to the HIV/ AIDS crisis – and has fought for various queer issues over the decades.

Fawcett is delighted by that legacy, but staunchly explains the fight continues. Fighting for rights for same-sex couples under superannuation law was happening as recently as 2008, and the CPSU also pushed for LGBTQIA+ people to be counted in the Census this year.

I ask her what she’d say to someone who believes unions should stick to wages and leave LGBTQIA+ rights alone.

Smiling, she immediately references an old union saying: “touch one, touch all.”

“If you touch one worker’s rights, you’re touching all workers’ rights,” she explains. “We stand together as a union movement to advance everyone’s rights – that’s what makes us stronger.”