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I was born in a small country town up in the sweaty Northern Territory. I was a third generation local so I couldn’t say or do anything without my parents and grandparents finding out. It was a town that was typical of rural Australia in the 80s and 90s. Racism, sexism and obviously homophobia were par for the course.

Many don’t understand how someone can be ‘non-binary’. The term has become an umbrella for those of us who don’t connect the genders we were assigned at birth, and don’t connect with our opposite. And no, we can’t “just pick one”.

The calendar has finally flipped over to June and we know what that means - it’s Pride Month. I have a complicated feelings towards this time of year.  Admittedly, it’s not all that different from how I feel about Sydney Mardi Gras in many ways.  As a bi person, I have felt excluded from Pride events more times than I can count.  I’m sick of giant corporations trying to convince us they actually care about LGBTQIA+ rights by selling things with rainbows on them.  I’m fed up with the cis-man, white, gay, able-bodied, neurotypical lens that is pushed in order to make the LGBTQIA+ community seem more palatable to straight people.

Due to Pansexual Visibility Day (may 24th), streams the opportunity to commemorate and recognize this orientation. And it may be the chance as well to realize if this is the label you were looking for. Pansexuality is the ability of feeling erotic and effective attraction towards another person regardless the sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or sexual roles. Including the capacity of keeping intimate and sexual relations with him/her/them. Actually the root pan comes from Greek and it stands for all.

IDAHOBIT means International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia. It is hard to believe, but it wasn’t until 1987 that homosexuality was taken out of the DSM 111-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) having previously been categorized as a ‘diagnosis’. On May 17^th, 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases, no longer categorizing it as an illness. Because of this progression in gay liberation, IDAHOBIT day is celebrated on May 17^th annually.

  The value of visibility is something that is generally taken for granted. Your average person has no problem finding some kind of peer role model to aspire to or to inspire them, in fact it is so ubiquitous that it's barely even considered. For members of the community whom...

To be honest, this is about my 12th plus attempt at writing a response to bullying in schools and sports, and although my line of work is in Education, I still do not have all the answers. What I have learned is an understanding that bulying is part of a human condition where power and influence on others is at the core of why individuals or groups continue detrimental behavior towards others. I still struggle at nearly 50 with why people, of all their variations, feel that they need to put others down, harass or even bully others. Even worse, I think we all do it in one way, shape or form, and I find that inexcusable.

Humanity is ever increasing and all of its success is built on the backs of all who came before. We have as humans to realize we are all of one genetic pool. Over the millennia we have found infinite ways to divide ourselves each time the us and them mentality leads us down a well trodden dark path. No good will ever come from division of people into vehemently opposed groups no matter what cover you put on it .

Dawning fingers of light reach out and tickle it, splintering a diamond shimmer through morning drops of frosty dew. Its flowers appear like an exploding nucleus, like a rounded pincushion - a cherry red core with hundreds of creamy jets shooting outward. Like a spikey child’s squeeze toy. Like rockets taking off from a martian world.

November 20th marks the nineteenth International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR). This proliferating global event, used to commemorate those transgender folk sadly no longer with us. Whilst TDoR is traditionally associated with murder victims (targeted on a mere account of their gender identity), it's also used to recognize those subjected to other wrongdoings, all as latent transphobia rears it's ugly head. All too often, said victims ending their lives as a result.

For transgender people - misgendering is more than an insult. It’s whiplash of the soul. Gender dysphoria is a painful echo, it reminds us of the lingering parts of ourselves which we hate, no matter how hard we try to leave them behind or evolve them. It’s different for everyone - some people despise their genitals, their chests, their faces or skin. To experience it feels very much like lead in the heart, like grieving for a lost loved one.

Asexuality is a sexual orientation akin to heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and pansexuality. It is a lack of sexual desire or attraction, or little to no interest in sexual activity. Asexuality is not a form of abstinence or celibacy as it is not a behavioural act or a conscious choice. It is an orientation.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have a lot of friends that were boys. In fact I don’t think I had a boy as a friend until I got to university and...well, I’m still dating him. I did have a lot of female friends however, and from a fairly young age I started experimenting with girls (and not in a science lab, wearing white coats). At this point in my life I didn’t know what gay or straight was. I didn’t know the words for any of the things I was doing. I had a sense that it needed to be kept secret, that if anyone knew what we were doing with each other, we’d probably get in trouble. But that didn’t stop us from doing everything we could think of.

Bisexual erasure occurs and is propelled in many forms. It is a common reaction for some monosexuals, such as my date, to diminish identities that cannot be so neatly categorised. Often, very often, bisexuals don’t feel they have a place to hold them - they are too ‘gay’ for the straights and too ‘straight’ for the gays. This marginalisation creates a sad reality for us, one where we feel strange about partaking in both gay and straight cultures.

The 23rd of September is International Bi Visibility Day, or to give it its official title, Celebrate Bisexuality Day. It’s not widely known, let alone celebrated, by the greater LGBTIQA+ community. But every year there are more events being organised by bisexual+ (bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, queer and multi-gender attracted) people around the world.

Although most Australians live healthy and happy lives, among the LGBTI community, a disproportionate number experience worse health outcomes than their non-LGBTI peers in a range of areas, in particular mental health and suicidality. Available research continues to demonstrate that the prevalence and rates of self-harm and attempted suicide are significantly higher amongst LGBTI people than among non-LGBTI populations, though the prevalence of completed suicide statistics remains unknown.

A demisexual is a person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone.

Wear it Purple Day is an annual awareness day for the LGBTIQA+ community organized by a non-profit organization and it is held on the last Friday of every August. This will be its eighth year and it will be celebrated on 31^st Aug 2018.