NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby announces new co-conveners

AFTER seven years on the committee, four of which were as a convener, Justin Koonin has stepped down from the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and will be replaced by Chris Pycroft and Lauren Foy.

[showads ad=MREC]Pycroft has served as Treasurer of the NSW GLRL  while Foy was Secretary.

The position of Treasurer remains vacant and the NSW GLRL is welcoming expression of interests from the community for the role and remaining vacant committee positions.

Along with the co-convenors, the new NSW GLRL Committee of Management is Nick Atkins, Rebekah Hitchenson, Cec Busby, Jeremy Law, Benjamin Oh, Sean O’Connor, Robbie Bedbrook and Tom Anderson.

The committee members’ skills and experience are diverse, including experts in human rights and discrimination law, community development and mental health and artistic direction.

Outgoing co-convenor Koonin was praised during last night’s Annual General Meeting for his hard work and contributions to the NSW GLRL.

The GLRL’s focus shifted to advocacy after the 2015 state election and the organisation developed a Parliamentary Briefing Paper to communicate its key goals for the term to parliamentarians.

The group’s annual report set out organisational priorities for the year ahead including: further work on anti-discrimination, in particular, removing exemptions for religious organisations; working with state and federal partners to lobby for marriage equality, and the continued partnership with Family Planning NSW in the Safe Schools Program combating homophobic bullying in schools.

Foy addressed the shortage of number of women on the committee at the AGM and said the organisation was brainstorming ideas to get more women involved, including the possibility of forming a women’s working group.

New co-convenors Foy and Pycroft paid tribute to the work of outgoing as well as continuing committee members.

“It is an honour to work with such a dedicated team, and an exciting time to be involved,” they said in a statement.

“We are witnessing a dramatic change in the way LGBTI people are viewed in Australian society, but there remains a tremendous amount of work to do.”

People interested in applying for the Treasurer role or general committee positions can email the co-convenors at convenors@glrl.org.au for more information The committee is particularly interested in hearing from people with legal and community engagement passions.