Penny Wong and Anthony AlbanesePrime Minister Anthony Albanese told the caucus that he would not change the religious discrimination law unless Opposition Leader Peter Dutton gave it bipartisan support. ​Suppose the Prime Minister is serious about fulfilling his election commitment. In that case, he can take simple and quick steps right now to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ students and staff in religious schools. While the LGBTQI+ community continues to wait for the law to change, more people will lose their jobs, and more children will be denied leadership roles or be forced to leave scho ..read more

Survivors have welcomed a bill that will ban LGBTQA+ conversion practices in NSW. The NSW government bill criminalises conversion practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and cause severe mental or physical harm. It also provides redress to survivors through a civil pathway and makes it illegal to take someone out of NSW to undergo a conversion practice. The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board can also disseminate information, conduct research and hold public inquiries about conversion practices. “We stand with survivors in welcoming this bill and w ..read more

bentART: Celebrating Australian LGBTQIA+ visual art since 2005.   A regular exhibitor explained what bentART means to her. ‘I’m inspired to make art by the existence of bentART…The joy of expressing something is finding a place to be heard.’   There’s nothing like a deadline for motivation. Entries must be in by midnight on April 30th. Exhibition Terms and Conditions and Membership & Entry Forms are available at bentart.com.au. Enquiries to presidentbentart@gmail.com. The post bentART 2024 Early Bird Entries are OPEN! appeared first on LOTL ..read more

The finalists for the 2024 Australian Pride in Sport Awards have been announced ahead of a glittering ceremony in Melbourne on 23 April. Now in its seventh year, the event will see sporting identities, clubs, and codes across the country gather to celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusion throughout Australian sport over the past year.  First held in 2018, the Australian Pride in Sport Awards is the first celebration dedicated solely to recognising exceptional efforts in making sport more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people. It is produced by Pride in Sport, the national not-for-profit sporting inclusion program ..read more

A first-of-its-kind study will investigate how Australia’s burgeoning aged care sector can enhance service delivery to cover a wider demographic of gender and sexual diversity. Led by Southern Cross University’s Professor Mark Hughes, the Co-creating rainbow-inclusive care for gender and sexually diverse people in residential aged care research project is set to break new ground by developing a best-practice inclusive model. The Australian government funds the five-year, $999,533 study through the Medical Research Future Fund’s Models of Care for Sexuality and Gender Diverse People and People ..read more

NSW’s leading sexuality and gender-diverse health organisation, ACON, is bringing LGBTQ+ women and their allies together to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, 8 March 2024, at a special event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.  Observed annually on 8 March, International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements. Also, it marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.  Produced by ACON with support from Women NSW, Celebrating LGBTQ+ Women will feature live music, performances and creative ..read more

LOTL Winter 2018 This exhibition is a timeline of lesbian representation and reporting by the long-running, lesbian-owned and staffed publication Lesbians on the Loose, now known as LOTL and an international online podcast. Published for more than 30 years, it was started by Frances Rand and Jackie Sherer. It has covered political and social change since 1990, including the coming out stories of the local and the famous, and topics such as parenting, adoption, IVF, breast cancer, and other important issues from a lesbian perspective. It has also celebrated lesbian events an ..read more

Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty ImagesAmerica’s biggest book publishers originally viewed LGBTQ+ romance as a niche market. By Christine Larson, University of Colorado Boulder and Ashley Carter, University of Colorado Boulder   A major transformation is underway in Romancelandia. Once upon a time, romance novels from major U.S. publishers featured only heterosexual couples. Today, the five biggest publishers regularly release same-sex love stories. From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%, with the next biggest jump in this period occurring for general adult fi ..read more

‘Remembering Our Future – Fierce, Fabulous and Free’ is an exhibition celebrating the works of many of our prolific Mardi Gras and community photographers who have collectively engaged us on OUR journey to bring us to where we are today. The exhibition (and parade entry) partners our group ‘Colours of Our Community’ with the ‘Black Dog Institute’ to highlight the struggles many of us have faced and will continue to face until full equality is achieved. The catalyst for this partnership is inspired by the personal and community stories told by our featured photographers. This includes the work ..read more

Still from ‘Polarized’Lisa is an aspiring singer from a conservative Christian family, while Dalia is from a successful Palestinian Muslim family and is engaged to be married. After Lisa’s family lose their small farm, she begins working under Dalia at her family’s innovative “agri-farm”. While racial, religious, and cultural tensions simmer, Lisa and Dalia nevertheless become close. As the women begin to learn more about each other, they form an attraction that prompts both of them to consider what might be worth sacrificing in the journey to be themselves. Polarized is a British-Canadian dra ..read more