March 2025
Quote
“When someone helps you, saying “I owe you” reduces an act of kindness to an accounting transaction. Generosity doesn’t come with strings attached. It’s not a debt to settle -it’s a gift to appreciate. You reciprocate a favour by paying it back. You honour a gift by paying it forward.”
Useful Fact
Many young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, or of diverse sexualities and genders (LGBTQIA+), will experience higher rates of bullying, discrimination, self-harm, suicidality, and other physical and mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression.
They experience these things not because of who they are, how they feel or how they identify, but due to external factors such as a lack of understanding and support from family, friends and service providers, and in educational settings.
One of the most effective ways to support young LGBTQIA+ people is through educating the whole-school community, including teachers, staff and students, on creating a safer and inclusive learning environment for all students. This will help you to:
support your LGBTQIA+ students
understand the difference between sex, gender and sexuality.
Go to the classroom support page on Reachout.
Instagram Highlight
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝙾𝚗 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚍? 🤯 Glad you asked. Can you go from lovers to friends? We have some thoughts. Is it possible? What do you need to be aware of?
🧡Obviously 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 with clear and direct chats are needed to establish 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.
🧡Setting and communicating clear boundaries is great. But it’s important to 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺! Keep checking in and adjusting when you need.
🧡You may need to take some time to adjust and 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 to process your feelings and move on in a healthy way.
🧡𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗶𝗱. Sometimes we go through times where we are closer and other times where we are more distant, and that’s okay.
🧡It’s important to 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, need a break from a friendship or recognise that the friendship is no longer what you both want or need anymore. This can be hard and that’s okay too.
🧡Reach out to friends or professionals for support.
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Campaign & Events
Be Unapologetic is a health promotion campaign by ACON's Can We project featuring LGBTQ+ community members who, in their own voice and style, talk about making choices to lower alcohol consumption. These messages are about being comfortable in your own skin, making healthy choices, and celebrating authenticity.
The campaign focuses on on what it means to live unapologetically—featuring LGBTQ+ community members Benjamin Law, Kelly Lovemonster, Kirsty Webeck, and Rudy Jean Rigg, in their unapologetic style, talking about making bold choices to lower alcohol consumption. These messages are about being comfortable in your skin, making healthy choices, and celebrating authenticity.
Know Your Websites
The Forum of Australian Services to Survivors of Torture and Trauma has launched Witness to War, a free and confidential multilingual telephone hotline for people in Australia affected by overseas conflicts.
Staffed by mental health practitioners and bicultural support workers, Witness to War offers community members incidental counselling, information about available support, and connections to other local services.
Witness to War staff can speak to callers in Arabic, Hebrew, Dari, Ukrainian and English and in other languages with an interpreter.
Who Are
Qtopia at 301 Forbes St, Darlinghurst, NSW.
In February 2024, Qtopia Sydney opened their doors to share the journey of the Queer community in Australia.
Qtopia Sydney is a welcoming and inclusive space devoted to the memory, education and celebration of the unique histories and lived experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community.
A true cultural hub encompassing four unique locations, we have the largest footprint of any Queer Centre of History and Culture in the world. We are storytellers committed to the core principles of empowerment and inclusivity.
On the Blog
One of our most popular blogs ever was Animal Sex.
We do suspect that it wasn't what some people were looking for when it coughed up in a search! Anyway, seeing as we also get so much positive feedback from our Animal Selfie dating profile emails, we thought, let's just continue to anthropomorphize animals with a part 2 blog edition of Animal Sex.
What kicked off part 2, of was a quote from the ABC in January 2024.
“Polyamorous little penguins living on Phillip Island, off Australia's southern coast, are having so much sex there are now more than 40,000 of them — and it is all thanks to climate change”.
To explain polyamory, here is a great quote from Aleks Trkulja(she/her) the Director of The Pleasure Centre, and a certified Sex, Relationships and Body Image therapist who works with all gender & sexual identities.
Resource
The Gist™ is for young people who want real information about sex and relationships. If you learnt about sex from porn, or your school sex ed was too basic, this website is for you. This website is intended for young people aged 15 to 24 years
Who made it? Sex education researchers at the Burnet and University of Melbourne, working with designers, artists, teachers, and young people.
Diary Dates
Upcoming On The Couch episodes for 2025 include:
19th March 2025
Jennifer Power will explore her research focused on sexuality, sexual health and HIV with Naomi. Be part of the live audience and hear about the study of sex and the impact of the social scripts in society.
13 May 2025
Sticky Q’s podcast hosts Tom and Adie will sit with Winnie and share their work as educators answering young people’s questions around sex, relationships and consent.
Register and get your free tickets to be in the live online audience for On The Couch episodes HERE.
Listen to or watch previous episodes HERE.
Complete free modules about sexual & reproductive health in your own time.