IDAHOBIT – The International day against homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 4, 9 June 2023, page no.23
Content advisory: The following article contains discussion of homophobia and homophobic treatment which some members may find distressing. However, IDAHOBIT provides the opportunity to discuss the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ identifying people openly, in the hope that, through these discussions, our LGBTQ+ members, colleagues, family and community members can feel safe to be their true and authentic selves within their workplace and community.
When I was outed in my first year of teaching, I cried. I didn’t cry because I was ashamed of my sexual orientation. I cried because being a first-year teacher is hard, and this was just another thing I had to process.
After a day attending the International Human Rights Conference during this year’s World Pride in Sydney, a cab driver asked me which conference I had been attending – then smirked when I told him and asked why animals and plants didn’t deserve the same rights as “the gays”. I felt afraid.
Homosexually was first legalised in Queensland in 1991, but while you could no longer be arrested for being homosexual, it didn’t mean it was automatically safe to be out and proud overnight.
In 2023 (32 years later), the QPS issued an apology for the historic mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people, and the Queensland Teachers’ Union, at the behest of its Pride Committee, has convened a working party to secure inter agency collaboration to ensure this announcement results in more than just a morning tea.
Despite this recent announcement and the work undertaken by the Union, there is still a distance to be travelled before members of the LGBTQ+ community can feel completely accepted for who they are and who they love.
Being LGBTQ+ isn’t a choice, a lifestyle, or a passing phase. It is being who we are and loving who we do – in spite of all the barriers, the ignorance, the othering, and the bigoted legislation.
So, I ask you to consider what you can do in your workplace to create a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community to be their gorgeous, sparkly, and most authentic selves? Visibility matters, whether pride pins, safe space stickers, lanyards, or posters. I cannot begin to tell you how much of a difference being welcomed into a workplace by these visible signs has made in my life and career, and how it has made me feel safe to be myself and feel included and accepted, rather than othered, hated or excluded.
We need to let our LGBTQ+ identifying colleagues know that we stand with them. That it is safe for them to be their authentic self in their workplaces, with you, and in your community.
You won’t hear the full lived experience of people within the LGBTQ+ community all that often, our collective trauma is not something we like to share. You’ll find we prefer rainbows, glitter and being irreverent… Get to know us, however, and you will begin to hear snippets like the experiences I have shared with you above. But every LGBTQ+ story you hear will be different.
My story is my own. Just like yours is. So, to summarise what IDAHOBIT means to me personally, it comes down to this…
"My name is Rebecca, I prefer Beck, my pronouns are she/her. I grew up in Brisbane, discovered my identity in Sydney and became who I am today out in Central Queensland.
I am a teacher, a union activist, the secretary of the Aramac bowls club, a daughter, a friend, a poet, that girl who talks social media algorithms… and tries not to make them too boring.
I am also madly in love with a women called Donna – but who I am attracted to, who I love, does not define me alone. As it does not define who you are alone.
In a world full of hate, I ask that you instead choose to be kind, to be an ally, and that you stand in solidarity with your LGBTQ+ colleagues, not only on IDAHOBIT, but every day. "