How important is that the LGBTI community, is a community? With the removal of many discriminating laws, growing acceptance in the workplace and increasingly more of our community living in the suburbs than the inner city, do we still need to band together like we did in decades past?
You’ll notice that we’ve reduced the amount of rainbows on our front cover. Increasingly younger members of our community are telling us the imagery and labels of the past are not as relevant as they once were.
‘What is it to be gay in the 21st century?’ is the question we are continually asking ourselves as we put together the paper each month.
The truth is that there will always be a vital need for a connected queer community. Last year research published in the Journal of Youth Adolescence showed that the best support for young people questioning their sexuality came, not surprisingly, from other same-sex attracted people. While friends, parents and the wider community can help us with the myriad of other challenges in life, the best people to help us understand and embrace our sexuality are each other.
Imagine what coming out would be like if there wasn’t the venues, social clubs and support services that we have now. It’s important that our future doesn’t end up resembling our past, so the strong links between all parts of our community are essential.
Throughout the next two months there is a heap of events on as part of the Pride Festival. It’s a great time to catch up with friends, especially those who are not out on ‘the scene’ as much as they used to be. Pride season is also a time when lots of people, both younger and older, will be taking their first steps into the LGBTI community. So while you’re going to see all your old mates, let’s also keep an eye open for all the new people joining our community, and make them feel welcome and included too.
So here is my Pride Festival challenge to everyone, between Fairday on October 8 and the Parade on November 19 let’s see if each of us can meet five new people in our community. If everyone who reads OUTinPerth does this, the combined new friendships and communication networks would make our queer community dramatically stronger.
Happy Pride 2011,
Graeme Watson
Editor
editor@www.outinperth.com
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