Content warning: this article discusses domestic violence in great detail I remember sitting in my psychologist’s office, my bum perched on the edge of her couch as I leant towards her, begging her to tell me why I couldn’t leave my abusive boyfriend, to explain what the hell was wrong with me. All the logic …

The anniversary of the 2017 postal survey returning a ‘Yes’ result commemorates a complicated legacy. Many in our community will celebrate this day as a great moment in the history of gay rights, while for many others it is overshadowed by the bitter experience of those difficult months. Contrary to much of the commentary during …

What does it mean to come out as asexual? What does it mean to identify as something that is essentially an absence? This is what I am thinking about, seven years into a happy straight-passing relationship with a cis-het man. It would be easy to continue in this relationship without coming out: just go on, …

How do you make a picture of something you can’t see? I’ve been commissioned to create an artwork about hidden queer histories, using the collections of local archives. At the State Library of Victoria, the search term transgender brings up zero results in the multimedia, images and scripts collections. The article and book results are …

Tumblr, the microblogging social platform, has long functioned as a space where young people tend to feel comfortable enough sharing intimate personal details about themselves, particularly in comparison with other social media networks. For me, it was the first place I truly felt like I could express my queerness. I had a typical high school …

As a non-binary person, I am constantly seeking films, television shows, music and online spaces where gender diversity is the norm, not the exception. They are still far too rare, and much needed in our current context. Misconceptions about transgender and gender diverse people continue to abound. In the United States, President Trump’s administration is considering defining …

Learning that I was on the asexual spectrum came as a relief to someone who firmly believed she was weird and different.

Rae Perks on the difficulty of coming out and finding a label for yourself that feels entirely right.

Sometimes, queerness is associated with sexual freedom and experimentation, often in the form of promiscuity. This assumption is used in very different ways: on the one hand, it’s an idea perpetuated by those who fear queerness as a threat to the ‘natural order’, chaotic and radical, lacking structure. But on the other hand, this sexual …

Content warning: this article discusses suicide.  In 1926, a headline in the New York Times newspaper boldly asserted that: “Only man is gay in bleak Greenland.” Fast forward nine decades later and this article remains a common Google result for anyone who is curious to learn what — if any — gay scene exists in …

Now in his 50s, Peter Waples-Crowe is a powerhouse community figure in the Aboriginal LGBT community, managing a career in public health alongside a significant body of visual art that reflects his unique intersections. After catching up over cigarettes outside the State Library of Victoria, and reflecting on the sombre irony of smoking tobacco products …

We all live under patriarchy, and its pull towards entrenched gender roles is strong.  When working against this pull, being a ‘good man’ cannot be a fixed point.  It’s not an end status that one can attain, and then finally rest.

Depending on when it was you asked my parents about their children, they would tell you they had three girls and three boys or, more lately, two girls and four boys. When I was born one of twins, the attending physician wasn’t sure if I was a boy or a girl. I would later learn …

It’s early for a Sunday, still morning, but already it’s been a day of firsts. This is my first indoor climb and first time with the Climbing QTs: ‘A queer, trans and gender diverse space open to anyone interested in a safe and friendly atmosphere to climb and socialise’, co- initiated and run by Riley …

Genderfication: Non Binary ART in a Linear World is the Leftover Collective’s performance of an anonymous Jacobean text from the 16th century that challenges the audience’s understandings of binary gender. All performers have the same speech – however the language pronouns and the structure of each have been shifted. Each speech is now unique, with …

Some things crystallise only after you’ve gotten enough distance from them. In this case, writing this piece has demystified something that was largely a magical experience for me: I was sent as an Australian delegate by the Kingdom of Thailand to the LGBT+ Travel Symposium in late June. Held over two days, the symposium was …

“Magic can give us the opportunity to think of the world in a new way, inspiring us to consider things differently and break our assumptions.” Creatrix Tiara talks about their show, Queer Lady Magician.

Kris Kneen on bisexuality and coming out (again) and presumed heterosexuality.

I was about 16. My mum and I were at Sam’s house. She’s a friend of my mum’s, and I loved visiting her. Her house was filled with mismatched antiques and eclectic treasures from around the globe; patterned rugs covered the hardwood floors, lush Japanese blankets draped the couches, while the smell of incense made …

During the marriage postal survey, I was drowning in a sea of talk about relationship coupledom and romance. Even in my poly subcultures, I often struggle to relate to the competitive search and play for multiple catches in the little dating pool. Queerness is often imagined as existing through coupledom. When I was first trying …

There are places that overflow with queer energy each and every time I pass by them. There’s the park in southern Sydney where I had my first gay kiss. A street in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg North where I wore a dress in public for the first time in my life as a trans …

Wading into the deep end of the pool as a trans woman athlete has been fraught with problems. I was only three years into my transition when I made the decision to return to sport in 2004. Prior to this, I had been a competitive athlete since my 5th grade of school. All I had …