Raising awareness and combating discrimination on IDAHOBIT
Days of Significance, such as IDAHOBIT, are key opportunities for organisations like Yooralla to continue to help raise awareness and promote inclusivity and support of LGBTQIA+ people with disability.
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17 celebrates LGBTQIA+ people globally and raises awareness for the work still needed to combat discrimination.
Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia can occur online, face-to-face and affect everyone by creating spaces where people feel unsafe and like they can't be themselves.
Experiences of discrimination, violence and abuse have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ people and people with disability.
Private Lives 3 2020, a national survey of the health and wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ people in Australia found that LGBT people with disability have twice the rates of anxiety and psychological distress than LGBT people without.
According to Deakin University’s research report More Than Ticking a Box, people with disability are more likely to experience violence and discrimination than people without disability, and the incidence among LGBTIQ+ people with disability is recognised to be even higher, despite issues of under-reporting.
Private Lives 3 also found that:
- 77% of Trans & Gender Diverse people report being discriminated against in the past 12 months, and
- 35%of LGBTQIA+ Australians have experienced verbal abuse in the past 12 months.
As an organisation, Yooralla are working to ensure our sites and services are safe spaces for our clients and staff, so they can explore their identity find community—working alongside our LGBTIQA+ customers and staff to create a more inclusive organisation and supports.
Days of Significance, such as IDAHOBIT, are key opportunities for organisations like Yooralla to continue to help raise awareness and promote inclusivity and support of LGBTQIA+ people with disability.
As we continue our journey, a reminder of the resources we have available for people with disability and staff to learn more about how they can support LGBTQIA+ clients and staff.
- Being LGBTIQA+: this poster explains more about what it means to be LGBTQIA+ and about the concepts of sexual orientation, sex and gender.
- Queer people with disabilities - Our stories, our hopes and how to support us: this poster features stories from the community of LGBTQIA+ people with disability.
- Making a complaint: provides guidance on where clients can make a complaint.
- Rights and Responsibilities: details the laws and conventions that protect LGBTQIA+ people.
Yooralla’s Customer Experience and Empowerment team support our clients one-on-one in a range of ways, including supporting people to connect to LGBTQIA+ communities, events, information, advocacy, mentoring—or even just to have a chat.
They will also continue to work with Yooralla services to provide information, answer questions and facilitate training as requested.
Want more information? Get in touch with the team on cre@yooralla.com.au.
More stories on our LGBTQIA+ journey
Supporting our LGBTQIA+ clients on Trans Day of Visibility and beyond
Find out more about IDAHOBIT, including how you can get involved on May 17.