As a community that has a long history of battling for equality, we are constantly fighting for our rights and acceptance within society. Thankfully, the drive for change is assisted by heterosexual friends who believe we deserve equality just as much as they do. Here are a five people who have devoted their time and compassion towards improving the lives of the LGBT community.
John Taylor
After finding out his son was gay, John Taylor devoted his time to ensuring parents with gay and lesbian kids had a support network. John has worked as the president for Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG). The most gratifying thing about John’s work is building relationships – ‘when people come to our meetings and we comfort them, we know what they’re going through’. John holds monthly meetings and encourages gay youth and their family to attend, to discuss struggles, and to reconnect. John is in strong support of the rainbow community at large, often attending equality rallies, meetings at the Freedom Centre, and ClubWest events.
Vicki Barry
Vicki Barry has been helping the LGBTIQ community since the 1980’s, when she worked at an STI clinic in Darlinghurst, processing and checking over 5000 gay men. These days Vicki works with her team at True Colours, who address homophobic bullying in regional WA. Vicki and her team work at a ground level, acting not only as a support network for LGBTIQ youth, but also in entering regional high schools – raising awareness and implementing direct action models to prevent bullying and consequential mental health problems and suicide. Vicki Barry also works for Uniting Care West, she has been with them since 2009.
Clive Elliott
Clive Elliott started working for One Life Suicide Prevention Strategy in 2010; and has been trying to reduce mental health issues and suicide since. When discussing the LGBTIQ population as ‘high risk’, Clive stresses – ‘It’s nothing to do with being homosexual, it is more to do with the added pressures from society. Society needs to get its act into gear, not the LGBTI group; they need to be proud of who they are’. Clive does a lot of work assisting LGBTI youth in remote areas; his most gratifying moment is ‘identifying emerging trends of high risk, and being in a position to do something about it.’
Trish Langdon
Trish Langdon has been working to help the rainbow community since the 1980’s when she started volunteering at the WA AIDS Council. Trish’s tenure as the organisation’s Executive Director is about to conclude and during her time at the helm the organisation has been transformed. Trish summarises her work as ‘Reducing barriers. What’s been the focus of some of my work has been a result of personal interactions with people that have had issues with coming out’. Trish’s most gratifying moments? ‘When treatments came in 1995-96 and people started to survive’, she says.
Trish also nominates when the gay law reforms were passed as a highlight, recalling ‘We got word through that it was going to be put to the vote and so a number of staff went down to Parliament to hear it. We all came back to WAAC and had a mini celebration. The straight staff put it on for the LGBTI staff by way of acknowledging the momentous occasion.’
Linda Savage
We have a straight alliance in parliament asking important questions on behalf of our LGBT community. Labour member Linda Savage is taking action to reduce homophobic bullying in schools, proposing the development of policies in schools that address the issue directly. In June, Savage posed the question to Education Minister Peter Collier –‘researched showed that 80% of those that reported homophobic bullying reported that it occurred at school, have you sought any legal advice about your duty of care?’. Married for thirty years, Savage personally believes same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else.
Nadine Walker
