by RATHANA CHEA
The NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) successfully launched its series of community consultation workshops last week at Stonewall.
The GLRL wants to hear from you about how discrimination impacts on your life. This will help us better lobby and campaign for your rights. Covering a broad range of topics, the forums are designed to bring together the various parts of our community to share, learn and be heard on the issue of discrimination.
The first workshop covered the issue of ageing and aged care. This is an important issue that cuts across generations regarding the impact discrimination has on our later lives.
The next two will cover multiculturalism and youth. Later in July we will also cover faith and religion, sex and gender diversity as well as disability in August. These broad topics represent the myriad voices and issues of concern our community faces.
Our multicultural consultation will discuss how same-sex attracted and gender diverse people from multicultural communities negotiate their culture and ethnicity in distinctive ways when it comes to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Given the breadth of such communities, this consultation will focus on the intersections of race, ethnicity and culture with sex, sexuality and gender diversity.
Topic: Multiculturalism Consultation
When: 6.30pm, Monday, July 11
Where: Surry Hills Neighbourhood Community Centre, 405 Crown St, Surry Hills
Our workshop on youth covers how young people often face considerable discrimination and vilification in school-based contexts and when ‘coming out’ to family and peers. Discrimination is compounded by a lack of financial independence, misinformation, and limited support in schools or local communities.
In order to explore the impact of discrimination, we invite young same-sex attracted or gender questioning young people to discuss their experience in both public and domestic contexts.
Topic: Youth Consultation
When: 2pm, Saturday, July 16
Where: Twenty10, 43 Bedford Street, Newtown
The GLRL is a member-based not-for-profit. All donations we receive go straight back into our work for the community. Help us help you by registering for a workshop through our website at www.glrl.org.au or donating financially through www.givenow.com.au/glrl
INFO: Rathana Chea is NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby co-convenor.
