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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-08 Daily Xml
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SAME-SEX DISCRIMINATION

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:14): I move:

That this Council:

1. Expresses its concern that young people who are same-sex attracted and/or gender questioning continue to face discrimination and stigma in our society and consequently are more likely to attempt or commit suicide, to be at risk or homeless and to suffer unnecessary mental illnesses or other indicators of a higher health burden than their peers;

2. Welcomes and encourages all efforts to counter this discrimination and stigma;

3. Notes that programs offering peer and group support are uniquely effective in tackling the isolation that some young same sex-attracted and/or gender questioning people may experience;

4. Congratulates the longstanding Government-run programs at Second Story, including Inside Out and Evolve, for their continued efforts to support young people who are same sex-attracted and/or gender questioning; and

5. Urges that the valuable role of targeted support and counselling programs for this vulnerable group be continued with at least current levels of funding and with access by young people to group support and peer education as well as counselling and health services and advice.

I move this motion to draw to the attention of members of this place, and hopefully members in the other place, the wonderful work that we have seen done for many years by the Second Story Youth Health Service, in particular with the programs Inside Out and Evolve. This work has been a great resource and support to young people who are same-sex attracted and/or gender questioning. There is the 'and/or' there, because it is quite a complex area. Somebody who is young and discovering their sexuality, and perhaps their gender, has a lot of questions, so that is a big part of the process that they go through.

As we know, adolescence is a testing time as it is, and to have lumped in on top of that the possibility that you may be same-sex attracted, bisexual or transgender, that you somehow do not fit in with regards to your sexuality, you are somehow not what is termed 'straight' or the 'norm' or the 'hetero norm', can be quite a challenge to have on top of the hormones going crazy and the search for identity that any young person has.

There has not been a great deal of research into this area, surprisingly, in terms of the Australian body of work, but I would point to a La Trobe study. It is called 'Writing young people in', and it was a survey of young same-sex attracted people in Victoria. The findings I think show that discrimination is alive and well and that the need for services for these young people is as present as it ever was.

Thirty-eight per cent of the participants in that survey reported unfair treatment on the basis of their sexuality. Forty-four per cent reported verbal abuse. Sixteen per cent reported physical abuse. The figures are largely unchanged since the first reporting, and this has been a longitudinal study. That is concerning and should be ringing bells. It shows that, as I say, stigma and discrimination against those who are not heterosexual are alive and well.

What was really concerning was that school was found to be the most dangerous place for these young people, with 74 per cent of the young people surveyed who were abused experiencing this abuse at their school. That was 80 per cent of the young men and 48 per cent of the young women. You would think that our schools should in fact be safe places where people can get an education, but we do know that bullying is quite a challenge in our schools, and certainly when you throw the layers of sexuality and discrimination and stigma in, a lot of young people in Australia are in fact doing it a bit tough.

That verbal abuse goes from name-calling to quite physical abuse, which can be perpetrated not only by friends and people in the street but also by families. I will read a comment from Miriam, who was 19 years old:

My father and stepmother…believed that I wouldn't be gay if they knocked it out of me, quite literally used to slam my head against the wall, gave me a headache, but I'm still gay.

Owen, who was 15 years old, reported that he 'got smashed' by his dad. They also talked about violence in schools. Tori, who was 20 years old, talked about being pushed down the stairs and into a wall at her high school. Tyron, who was 16 years old, talked about a guy who threatened to kill him and he had to in fact stop going out at all in case that person was there. He knew that this person would bash him up for no reason at all and both he and his brother would push him around.

Yolanda, who was 19, was bullied all the way through school, mostly for being different, but her sexuality was the biggest factor in why she was different. She was spat on, her legs were kicked from behind as she attempted to walk away, she was thrown against walls and she was threatened. Hugh, who is now 21 years old, talked about his experience at his boarding school. He was subjected to other guys pretending to have sex with him. He had his bed urinated on, and he had a broomstick inserted into his anus.

Other people experience that discrimination and physical and verbal abuse in public places. Trina, who is 21, said that she kissed her girlfriend goodbye at a train station and a man walking past started screaming abuse at both of them. She left the train station and the man was outside waiting for her. He grabbed her, shook her and screamed in her face about how sick she was. He almost knocked her down some stairs, but she managed to push him off and another man nearby helped her walk away. Victor, who is 20 years old, was walking home when a group of six 12 year olds began teasing him and asking him if he were gay. He said that, stupidly, he said yes. They tripped him to the ground and kicked him until a car stopped and the youths ran away.

Vance, who is 17 years old, said that he and his boyfriend were punched at a local beach. He said, 'A group of about seven guys in their early 20s were around, and two of them laid into me and my boy. I was hospitalised and lucky not to have a broken jaw, just fractures. My boy has had back pains ever since.' I find it interesting that Vance thought that he was lucky; I certainly do not think any parent whose child was bashed on a beach by a group of thugs would think their child was lucky. I raise these stories because when I say that stigma and discrimination are alive and well, this is the form they take in being alive and well—or unwell, I would say—in our community.

Young people who are coming out, or who are gender questioning, go through this in their teenage lives, and they deal with it, but I congratulate the programs at Second Story for providing both a fortnightly Friday night drop-in service and peer education for those young people who have been through that group, and been through the discrimination themselves, and provide each other with support. It is quite telling that when a young person is so isolated by their gender identity or sexuality—and they have no-one to talk to in their immediate life or anyone who has been through that sort of situation—one of the cheapest things you can do is let them actually meet other young people in exactly the same situation.

Of course, their stories and their life journeys are completely different, but the discrimination they face is the common thread. They can talk with each other and learn from each other that they can get through it. They can learn tips and tricks or just feel stronger. We know that when we band people together, they have a sense of camaraderie and a certain spirit. If we do not have those sorts of services in this state for our gay and gender-questioning young people, then I wonder where our responsibility is. The only reason we could purport not to need these services would be if we could proudly stand here and say that we do not have discrimination or stigma in this society today—yet we know that we do.

We know there is still homophobia, and we saw it just recently at the International Day of Action on Homophobia, the IDAHO Day, when the Adelaide Street Church group took offence to the idea of gay people gathering together and straight people supporting them and sought to break that up with antagonism and physical and verbal abuse. So, we know that discrimination and stigma are alive and well, which means that we need the wonderful work that the Second Story programs, Inside Out and Evolve, are currently undertaking.

However, I am concerned that recent internal moves within the Second Story hierarchy have sought to mainstream—and I would say that would mean be made invisible—the programs and supports offered to these young people to personal one-on-one counselling services, perhaps with access to referrals to services. We know that these young people are more likely to be at risk of homelessness and, from the abuse in particular, are more likely to have things such as post-traumatic stress disorders and mental health issues, such as depression. These issues are experienced within this cohort at a much higher level than those of their peers. So, I am very concerned when I hear that Second Story is looking at offering these people one-on-one counselling services, and for no particular cost saving that I can see, or that has been put to us, they are getting rid of the drop-in group and peer education.

What I would say is that by doing that they are getting rid of the most successful part of the Inside Out and Evolve programs, the part that really gives these young people a sense of home, a sense of identity, a sense that they are not alone. Sending them off to a one-on-one counselling service or making them prove that they are in some way vulnerable before being able to attend any sort of support within that Second Story project will defeat the purpose.

I think that members who have had communications from those who have been assisted by these two wonderful programs would realise that every story is different but that the Evolve and Inside Out services have in fact saved young people's lives. I would hate to think that we would be overseeing a bureaucratic decision which would see some young people isolated to the point where they would look at taking their own life.

With that, I urge members to have a look at the programs of Second Story, Inside Out and Evolve as they are currently run and to show their support. I would hope that members will be making a contribution to this motion at some stage and I look forward to the drop-in groups and peer education continuing well into the future.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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