Australian Human Rights Award For Conversion Practices Survivor Gabriel Osborne
Image: Gabriel Osborne (seated, extreme right). Image: AHRC
Conversion Practices survivor and outspoken mental health advocate Gabriel Osborne was awarded the Australian Human Rights Young People’s Award 2024.
The other award winners were women’s equity and racial equality advocate (Human Rights Medal), Northern Pictures (Media and Creative Industries Award), Advocacy Tasmania (Community Award) and the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Law Award).
According to AHRC, 24-year-old Osrborne, “used their lived experience to advocate for survivors of institutional abuse and LGBTQIA+ conversion practices.” Osborne recently set up a not-for-profit organisation Flying Free to advocate for systemic reforms nationally.
A Survivor
In a video recorded before the awards, Osborne said they did not expect to be a finalist. “I’ve only started my kind of activism and advocacy Journey over the past 18 months to 2 years,” said Osborne.
Osborne was a former resident of Esther Foundation in Kalamunda, Western Australia. The Christian-based rehabilitation centre with links to the Pentecostal church was shut down after former residents revealed multiple incidents of sexual assault, gay conversion practices and exorcism.
Osborner previously said that they were held down “by groups of people and them commanding spirits to leave my body.”
In the video, Osborne shared their experiences of being a survivor. “I was abused in a mental health facility when I was 15 years old for a year and a half. I was subjected to really significant gay conversion practices and I was left suicidal and homeless,” said Osborne.
Flying Free
Osborne started an online group for survivors of the Esther Foundation. “I heard the stories of hundreds of other survivors and realised this wasn’t an isolated incident this was happening all over the state and all over the country. I started reaching out to community leaders, to lawyers , to politicians, to really anyone that would listen about our community and what we needed.”
Esther said they along with two other survivors set up Flying Free to advocate for change nationally. “We’re hoping to expand the support and the advocacy we’ve been able to provide to our community to all victims in Western Australia and hopefully nationally helping them seek justice, seek psychological healing to share their experiences and be believed,” added Osborne.
