Jessica Kuntze
Yes, Australians are moving towards a more inclusive and open-minded society, but there are still issues within our country and the world that need to be addressed before everyone can be accepted.
In 2017, Australians voted to make same-sex marriage legalised which pushed our government to pass the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 in December of that year.
With discrimination against those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community illegal and every state having passed legislation to allow same-sex couples to adopt, Australia has come a long way since colonisation.
As good as things are getting, there are still stereotypes pushed onto LGBTQ+ individuals and homophobic, transphobic and biphobic comments thrown around every day.
From the beginning, LGBT individuals have received all sorts of persecution and discrimination, including but not limited to anti-homosexual laws and punishments for homosexual acts.
The first changes were seen in the 1960s when Australia’s first gay rights group was formed, the Homosexual Law Reform Society in Canberra.
The first changes in the legal system were seen in the mid-to-late 1900s with changes to laws that criminalised homosexual acts.
To find a timeline of LGBTQ+ rights, up until the postal survey, see this link.
With Australia as a nation accepting and embracing all aspects of the LGBTQ+ community, and abolishing anti-homosexual laws, we are seeing an increase in people feeling more comfortable being open about their sexuality.
But with this also comes the pressure to be open, many individuals around the country have felt pressured to ‘come out’ and even some who have felt like they have to act a certain way in order to be accepted.
In high school, Brandon was basically bullied into coming out as gay, “I used to get bullied a lot for not being out but once I came out it stopped.”
In an interview with Howard Stern last year, Kristen Stewart spoke of the pressures she has been put under to define her sexuality for the public and how the relentless questioning can feel like abuse when you are unsure of the answer yourself.