Supporting our LGBTQIA+ clients on Trans Day of Visibility and beyond: Yooralla’s LGBTQIA+ resource launch

As we strive to be more inclusive of people who are part of LGBTQIA+ communities, we are proud to launch a range of resources to raise awareness and support the inclusion of LGBTIQA+ clients.

This is particularly important on days like International Transgender Day of Visibility (31 March), a day of pride and celebration for gender diverse identity, achievements, and community.

International Transgender Day of Visibility, also referred to as Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV), was started by activist Rachel Crandall in 2009 as a reaction to the lack of recognition of trans people.

It is a day to acknowledge and celebrate all members of the transgender community.

Yooralla’s LGBTQIA+ resources

To ensure Yooralla is recognising and supporting our LGBTQIA+ clients and staff and creating an inclusive community for all—we are launching these resources, created as part of the “My Identity, My Choice” project, to start a conversation around inclusion and support of LGBTQIA+ customers.

Rebecca Feldman, Yooralla’s Customer Rights and Empowerment Officer who led the project hopes that “these resources will highlight the fact that people with disability have multiple identities, welcoming us and enabling us to have full and rich lives and welcoming all of who we are.”

Terry Symonds, Yooralla’s Chief Executive Officer, echoes the importance of these resources and the “My Identity, My Choice” project.

“This work is about supporting clients to express their identity. Research tells us that sense of comfort and safety and gender identity is part of mental health and wellbeing.

“These resources give us the material to start conversations around identity to ensure we are safe and supportive of our LGBTQIA+ clients,” Terry said.

You can find all the resources below.

• Poster 1: Being LGBTQIA+ - Flags
• Poster 2: Being LGBTQIA+ - Icons
• Poster 4: Being LGBTQIA+ stories
• Poster 5: Making a complaint (for clients)
• Staff fact sheet

Finding power in connection

During the launch event that took place on 30 March, we heard from two members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are also people with disability, Is Hay and Jax Jacki Brown.

Is and Jax shared some of their thoughts around the importance of connection between members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“Being connected in the LGBTQIA+ disabled community has meant that I haven’t felt alone in my identities and the ongoing discrimination and barriers to access in life,” said Jax.

“There are other people that experience those things and find pride, resilience and resistance through connecting. There is power and value in seeing these parts of yourself in other people and you start to understand your disability and queerness as not things you should feel ashamed of, but find pride and belonging in.”

“There is great power in finding a queer disabled community,” said Jax.

The importance of allies

A real take-home from the launch was the importance of allies.

“To be an ally is to acknowledge your power and to use it,” said Is.

“Recognise that your responsibility is to use your voice to amplify the voice of LGBTQIA+ people and recognise the role you play in amplifying the voice of queer people.”

“It makes a big difference if you correct someone when they use the wrong pronouns for a person or ask about accessibility of something on their behalf. It makes it easier for LGBTQIA+ people and those with disability to get through the day,” Is said.

Jax agreed that “A good ally thinks about their power and privilege and utilises it to listen to the disabled person about what they want and need and they work alongside that person to connect them to the LGBTQIA+ community, affirm their gender identity, pronouns and so on—particularly if that person is feeling isolated and alone.”

Continuing to support our clients

After the incredible success of the launch, Yooralla will continue to work to help support clients to explore their identity find community and importantly, work alongside our LGBTIQA+ customers and staff to create a more inclusive organisation and supports.

Days of Significance such as Trans Day of Visibility are key opportunities for organisations such as ours to continue to help raise awareness and promote inclusivity and support of LGBTQIA+ people with disability.

Yooralla’s Customer Experience and Empowerment team will continue to support 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.