Celebrating World Pride at Young & Resilient: A letter from our Directors

For those of us in Sydney we cannot help but notice the colour and rainbows that fill the streets of Sydney – World Pride has arrived!

World Pride offers a critical time for reflection, to consider the inroads that we have made towards inclusion, as well as the work we still have to do. For the young people we work with at Young and Resilient, we hear mixed messages about experiences of being sexually and gender diverse. Young people unfortunately continue to report encountering homo-/bi-/trans-phobia and cissexism within schools and work, and from families and friends. They also continue to encounter hate speech online and cyberbullying and have negative experiences with health professionals.

However, this is only part of the story. These very same young people also use online spaces every day to find similar others, explore identities, and setup careful strategies to thrive and keep themselves (and their families) safe. They are also participating in research and co-designing resources for their peers and researchers – acceptable supports to ensure other young LGBTQIA+ people are supported for the future.

Research with young people that identifies acceptable supports and surfaces young people’s lived experiences and practices is important if we are to take the message of inclusion seriously. It enables us to learn from young people, and invest in work towards addressing the barriers that marginalise and create negative health outcomes for them. World Pride offers us an exciting opportunity to reflect (and showcase below!) some of the great work that is happening with young people, to ensure a more inclusive society.

In honour of World Pride, we have complied a collection of works with LGBTQIA+ themes from our research. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed working with sexuality and gender diverse young people to create them.

Co-Director Professor Amanda Third and Acting Co-Director Dr Benjamin Hanckel,  
Young and Resilient Research Centre