Dudes, dudettes, dudes-in-between*; greetings! My name is Liv and I will be your host this evening. Orange juice, anyone? It's on the house.

You've probably all noticed I'm new here, and that's cool. Before I get started, I'll rattle off a few facts about myself.

I'm seventeen years old and in grade eleven of high school- I should be grade twelve, but that's another story. I'm a Kiwi living in Australia. (No, I did not have a pet sheep. No, I do not ride kangaroos to school.) I have a fascination with psychology and want to study it at uni as soon as I get out of school (and back to New Zealand), but journalism's my back up option. I love Glee, My Chemical Romance, Flight of the Conchords, Harry Potter, Gin Wigmore, Alice in Wonderland, Homestuck, and Daria. I'm a cis-gendered polysexual** in a long distance relationship with a genderfluid omnisexual. Basically we're both really gay and don't leave our respective houses often.

Right, that gets that bit out of the way. Who wants rainbow-cake?





I live in Brisbane, Australia, and I come from a small city in New Zealand called Dunedin. I've been out as bi/lesbian/pansexual/lesbian again/demisexual/polysexual for two or so years (it took me a while to work that one out), and this year I've become more active in the LGBTQ* community as I've become more comfortable in my sexuality.





So living down in Oceania, the LGBTQ* community comes together every few months for Marriage Equality rallies with Equal Love, and once a year for the Pride Festival. Pride in Queensland (the state I live in) is in September, because the weather's much nicer then in comparison to when it happens in the US. Which pretty much means we're in the middle of the festival right now! (For all you other people in Brisbane, the main parade is on the 16th and I really hope to see you all there.)





The last event was a rally, which was the biggest in Queensland history. On August 11th, the LGBT community came together, made lots of noise and waved signs around. (I could be heard shouting “not even my sign will stay straight!” every time there was a new gust of wind – another fun fact; I think I’m funny when really I’m not). We made it onto the national news, and that was pretty exciting. Unfortunately there have been no more changes since then, but we got our voice out there nonetheless.









As well as having a not-homophobic-but-doing-homophobic-stuff kind of Premier, the ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) has a major influence on the country’s government. Statements like being gay is more dangerous than smoking are all too common, and it’s actually terrifying to consider that the LNP (Liberal National Party) made changes based on input from this group. Separation of church and state, anyone? (Thankfully Julia Gillard just cancelled her attendance at an ACL conference, perhaps soon she’ll attend her first LGBTQ* event?)





Laws like the “gay panic” law are still in place, despite overwhelming support to have them repealed . They promote homophobia and violence, and the defence has been used too many times with success. In cases of assault and murder, a defendant can still claim that they were defending themselves against A Terrifying Homosexual who was Coming On To Them. Apparently the sheer terror of someone considering you to be attractive is enough to warrant their death. But repealing it “isn’t a priority”, and no one’s really listening.



