Living Proud will mark their 50th anniversary in 2025 and the organization recently reflected on their journey over the last five decades.
At an event held at the City of Perth Library, Living Proud: LGBTIQ+ Community Services of WA looked back over their history, the changing world and launched a fresh new logo.
The community group supports people through counselling services, training programs and a range of inclusion initiatives. In 2024 Living Proud was one of several community groups top get a funding boost from the state government, allowing them to hire Meaghan Holden, their inaugural CEO.
The organisation grew out of 1970s advocacy group the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) and its Phone a Friend service.
CAMP is the foundational group for many Perth LGBTIQ+ organisations. One of these was formalised as the Homosexual Counselling Service of WA in 1974. Through the decades the organisation has had many names to stay current to a changing world.
It became the Gay Counselling Service of WA (Inc) in 1984 and was incorporated that year. In 1990 the name was changed again to the Gay and Lesbian Community Services of WA (Inc) to reflect the wider range of services that were offered.
The name Living Proud was originally used as the name of the LGBTI Suicide Prevention Project run by GLCS. This was funded by the OneLife WA Suicide Prevention Strategy from December 2011 to August 2013. In was later taken on as a new name for the organisation.
Speaking at an event in late December CEO Meaghan Holden said over the next twelve months there would be a series of events to recognise the organisation’s five-decade history, and it was also the right time for a rebrand.
“It’s a symbolic refresher of a very old and established organisation.” Holden said, describing the new logo as “kicking it up as notch”. Holden also paid tribute to the countless number of volunteers who have given their time to make Living Proud a success.
“Living Proud stands where it is today because of their tireless commitment, unwavering courage, and dedication to serving our LGBTIQA+ communities in Western Australia.
“The struggles that they faced and the barriers that they overcame, the paths that they forged have left us with an incredible legacy. It is really important that we never forget that.” Holden said.
Colin Longworth chats about his long involvement with Living Proud
Colin Longworth, who has been a regular contributor to OUTinPerth for decades, has been volunteering at Living Proud for most of its long journey.
He first started volunteering with the group in 1981. His own coming out experience in the 1970s was at a time when homosexuality was illegal, considered a mental illness and little information was available to support people or help them find community.
After many weeks training he began working on the phone line that people could call for help and advice. In 1983 he was one of the first people who were trained to give assistance to people with what is now known as HIV.
Volunteering on the group’s helplines was a life changing experience for Longworth, it gave him the impetus to enroll in university and become a psychologist. It was a big step, because he’d never finished high school.
“I hadn’t done any studying really, so I did a return to study course at Canning College, and to this day I still use some of the stuff from it.” Longworth said as we chatted over coffee.
He then enrolled at ECU to begin his studies to become a psychologist, and his many years of work at Living Proud put him in good stead.
Over the years the methodology for chatting to clients has changed, the phonelines are now under a national system vis Q-Life, and people can also get support online through a chat function too. Longworth shared that over the decades the type of support people are seeking has changed quite significantly too.
“When AIDS started to rear its ugly head people really changed from looking to meet someone, to wanting to meet a long-term partner.
“In more recent times, there’s been a lot more trans clients, that was pretty rare when I first started, but now it’s quite common.” Longworth noted.
Today Colin Longworth’s time of answering calls has ended, and he volunteers for Living Proud in many other ways, including help organise some of their 50th celebrations. It also allows him to remove the cloak of anonymity and speak about his experiences of manning the phone lines for all those decades.
He shares that he’s often finished a shift at Living Proud with the feeling that a big difference has been made to somebody’s life.
The organisation has changed remarkably over the years. Longworth remembers when they got their first volunteer who worked in the office, and then another landmark was when they were able to start paying for a part time staff member.
Speaking at the event in December Longworth shared that when he did his initial training back in 1981 the trainer noted during the first session that they’d heard that people were trying to get into the role of answering phone lines so they could covertly talk the clients out of being part of the homosexual lifestyle.
“There was one man who had some odd attitudes for someone enrolled in the course, he didn’t come back the second week.” Longworth recalled.
Look out for all of Living Proud’s 50th birthday celebrations in the year ahead and find out more about their services on their website.
