I grew up in the coastal town of Cairns, in the far northern regions of Queensland among the banana plantations and sugar cane crops.
About 15 years ago, Cairns was similar to Bunbury; a burgeoning town reaping the benefits of an industry boom while swiftly developing into a city. Growing up, the only serious threat to my existence was the odd crocodile or a stray Irukandji jellyfish that had snuck through the nets at the beach. There were times when some homophobic Neanderthal thought it necessary to yell ‘poofter’ but those times were few and far between.
Looking back, the only way I survived Cairns was that I hid away in the depths of my proverbial closet.
Times have changed remarkably, greater numbers of young people are coming out in remote areas and queer-focused support services have sprung up throughout the country. Despite these advances and the state-based anti-discrimination laws in place, there are still troubles bubbling beneath the surface.
The Writing Themselves In 3 report, released last year, found ‘many young people aspired to leave their rural and regional homes to become the person they wanted to be in an urban environment’. Young people were still ‘less likely to feel safe at school, at social occasions and on the internet than their urban peers’. Since the WTI3 report was conducted throughout Victoria and did not sample WA people we spoke to Sharon Waters, who works with young LGBT people in rural WA.
Waters is a team leader for True Colours Bunbury, an organisation that tries to reduce the emotional and social isolation of rural young people of diverse sexuality or gender or sex. She polled her group of young people for OUTinPerth and found a similar story to the report’s findings.
‘Even though all of those young people are out and have family / friend support, most of them described having a hard time at school especially year 9 and 10,’ Waters reported.
‘Some described incidences of not being able to walk to and from school alone or be alone during breaks for fear of being beaten and threatened.
‘In the words on one young person “the weirdos stuck together, we were safe and we belonged and we felt supportedâ€.’
Homophobia from peers and parents prevented the majority of the group from regular activities like playing sport since there was generally only one team in a town. Showing affection to a partner in remote towns was also off the cards; they found it ‘difficult and uncomfortable’.
‘Even holding hands would draw snide and or lewd remarks, staring and open criticism,’ she said.
‘The attention was unwanted and homophobic in its nature.’
More than half of Water’s group said they would be moving away for opportunities for work, play and ‘freedom’ while only a small number of these people were happy to stay.
These developments are far from new or recent. In 1996, another report called The Rural Mural engaged both gay and straight young people– it was one of the first in Australia to focus on regional health and sexuality.
Even back then, researchers recognised the main difficulties faced by young people were conservatism in rural towns and a lack of activities outside of sport.
‘…For young gay males like myself it’s not the best place to live,’ says Jade, a young person from Bunbury. Jade, a member of the online Facebook social group LGBT Bunbury said the town was not the best place for a young LGBT person.
‘It’s just the freedom of expression that I don’t like. Its very limited in Bunbury, I’ve yet to live in Perth but already I feel I have a lot more support and friends up there,’ he wrote.
‘A place like Bunbury does need more exposure to change but it’s just not a place to start growing; it’s a place to settle down.’
Another Bunbury local, ‘Stack’ told us Bunbury could be ‘a shithole’.
‘I would love to walk down the street holding my gf’s [girlfriend’s] hand without being wolf whistled at or getting disapproving stares but I guess that’s the same just about everywhere,’ she said.
Living rurally comes with other issues besides discrimination: isolation is another important factor for LGBT people. Internet access and support services like True Colours Bunbury relieve this burden but they have their limitations: support services are generally for younger people and public social events are in short supply.
The WTI3 report also found young people were more unlikely to feel unsafe online, even if it is a place to find the gay community.
Camilla Peffer recently moved from the cultural boiling pot of Newtown, Sydney to Bertram, 30 minutes south of Perth.
She found she had been prepared for a ‘huge shock’ in the change of lifestyle.
‘To be honest, I don’t like living outside of the city,’ she said.
‘Most of the lesbians here are already coupled up and there are no ladies’ nights to speak of.
‘I used to live 5 minutes walk away from the best gay bars and now I have to plan a place to stay if I want to have a drink anywhere.’
While there are still troubles in regional WA, there is as much opposition to living in the concrete jungles of metropolitan Perth.
As Cassie from Karratha told us quite frankly over an email, ‘I hate Perth’.
Murray Rose-Jones (RJ) lives 20km out of Bridgetown and would not return to the city. RJ has lived with his partner Kim on their property for half a decade now, surrounded by state forest.
‘I love it down here… city-wise I was just too bound, I never enjoyed it in the city,’ RJ said.
Their closest neighbour may be 5kms away yet they feel far from isolated. The internet keeps them connected while lawn bowls and theatre keeps them entertained.
‘We live a long way away and we have our gay casserole night’ – gay casserole night is a monthly affair where RJ, Kim and some friends catch up over casserole and drinks. He said Bridgetown was known for its gay population; he joked that they had ‘lesbians falling out of the trees down here’.
Bridgetown hasn’t been all peaches; at the end of the Bridgetown football season in 2009, he was approached by a local who told the quicker the town was rid of him, the better.
Grant Shorty also loves the country; he packed up his life and hit the road six weeks ago to travel Australia and only just made it to Exmouth.
‘Country towns are generally fantastic. Younger Aussies travel all over the world but don’t do Australia,’ he said.
‘The people in country towns are in general so much nicer than city folk. They are a community of people, they have seen more hardship and learnt to band together; they help, are genuine and are generous.’
Now travelling through remote WA and having lived in Mandurah for the past five years, Shorty knows it’s not easy being a ‘gay bloke’ in towns.
‘There isn’t the masses of people that want to turn the thought process around so people tend to run with it than buck the trend,’ he said.
Rural issues are fairly void as far as widespread discussion and debate is concerned. Support services are doing their best – building up the self-confidence of future generations. The illusive conclusion to this issue remains: can we really expect change from the ‘only gay in the village’ mentality in rural Australia?
Benn Dorrington
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