Out for Australia has announced the winning finalists in their 30 Under 30 Awards, and there’s some local faces amongst the many talented individuals being highlighted.

From these 30 finalists, five category award winners will be announced at our awards night on Thursday, 6th October.

Alex John Kelly: Alex/John is an autistic, queer, gender-fluid sex worker peer, and a passionate advocate for the decriminalisation of sex work.

Alex Kelly: Alex (he/him) is a young professional and is currently on two LGBTQ+ committees inside and outside of his organisation.

Alistair Moses Angelo Ott: Alistair is a Wiradjuri, non-binary, queer, brotherboy. They currently work at A Gender Agenda as the engagement coordinator and is passionate about supporting and advocating for LGBTIQA+ communities through their various volunteer roles.

Amy Sargeant: Amy is an activist, artist and musician. She is the National Convenor of the Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education caucus.

Bart Dekker: Bart (he/him) is an out and proud gay Electrical Engineer and Captain for the Perth Rams Touch Rugby Club. He is committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQIA+ people to be their authentic selves in the resources industry and on the sports field.

Catriona Nguyen-Robertson: Catriona (she/her) is an immunology researcher. She also teaches Science Communication at The University of Melbourne, where she is Secretary of the Pride in Action Network.

Charlotte Glance: Charlotte is a co-founder of the Youth Pride Network and a passionate advocate for LGBTIQA+ young people. They have helped to highlight discrimination in youth homelessness services, shape Western Australia’s new discrimination laws and supported conversion practice survivors to have formalised representation.

Chloe Tala Rattray: Chloe is a queer academic and inclusion and diversity specialist. She leads Amber, the global disability access and inclusion network at BHP.

Dwayne Sibraa / Rose Quartz: Murrumbidgee Rose Quartz was titled Best and Fairest in the Miss First Nations 2019 pageant organised by Party Passport and took part in pre-show entertainment for the AFL in Melbourne.

Emily Hall: Emily is a solicitor and co-leads their firm’s LGBTQIA+ network in Sydney.

Emily Unity: Emily (they/them) is a software engineer and a lived and living consultant. Emily grounds their work in their lived and living experiences of mental health, disability, LGBTQIA+, homelessness, and being a young carer from a refugee and migrant background.

Grace Sholl: Grace is a proud LGBTQIA+ young woman that combines her lived experience with mental illness with her background in psychology to advocate for systematic and social change.

Hank Paul: Hank offers online training and resources to empower other wedding photographer professionals to be allies and equality champions for LGBTQ+ couples getting married. Hank also produced the four-part documentary podcast, ‘First Look: How Marriage Equality is Transforming the Wedding Industry’.

Jasmine Fletcher: In 2021, Jasmine founded Queer and Now, a not-for-profit arts organisation that programs a range of events and initiatives. Jasmine is passionate about supporting queer arts, cultivating safer spaces and fostering social connections for sexual and gender diverse folk.

Jazmeen Payne: Jazmeen is a queer, second-generation migrant living on Ngunnawal-Ngambri land. Jazmeen has worked alongside young LGBTIQA+ people to implement events and social media campaigns while advocating for the LGBTIQA+ community, informing policy, planning and practice development across organisations.

Jennifer Puth: Jennifer is passionate about supporting the LGBTQIA+ community in the therapeutic space. Jennifer’s Master of clinical psychology research investigated how lesbian women at the intersections cope with experiences of heterosexism in an Australian context.

Joshua Maxwell: Joshua is a 29 year old queer theatre-maker and writer. He is passionate about providing young people with a platform to raise their own voices in the performing arts sector.

Kale Ryan: Kale is non-binary and pansexual. They strive to improve diversity and inclusion for others within all aspects of their life.

Leslie Peters: Leslie is a public health researcher currently focusing on trauma, mental ill-health, and substance use among LGBTQ+ young people. Leslie also advocates for the health and rights of gender and sexuality-diverse communities through peak health and LGBTQ+ organisations.

mac zamani: Mac (he/him) is a queer, trans student and has a disability. With his own lived experience, he advocates towards a more inclusive and accessible society in which disabled, queer, trans and gender diverse young people are able to be their selves. He is a member of various youth organisations including Youth Disability Advocacy Service, Mutlicultural Youth Advocacy Network, Minus-18 and Orygen.

Matthew Coleman: Matt is a PhD student and a founding member of QueersInScience. He is committed to improving education, visibility and access for LGBTQIA+ people in STEMM in Australia.

Melis Layik: Melis is a Turkish writer, creative and activist. Melis has worked with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, Youth Affairs Council Victoria, International Women’s Development Agency, Springvale Community Legal Centre, Butterfly Foundation and Queerspace.

Michael Tian: Michael is a Peer Mentoring Officer at RMIT University and a student at Victorian University. He advocates for international LGBTQIA+ students in various NGO and government events through stage performance and was recognised as the finalist Victorian LGBTIQ Person of the Year in 2021.

Pi Katharine Ellora Lee: Pi (she/her/they) is a professional teacher, counsellor, celebrant and performing artist based in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). She is a passionate advocate for intersectional social inclusion and loves working in diverse spaces to support the voices of young people and creating meaningful social change.

Sashwat Tripathi: Shashwat is passionate about the nexus of technology, law and policy and believes in its potential of addressing critically emerging community problems. He has advocated for LGBTQ+ anti-vilification legal protections at the Parliament of Victoria, the development of LGBTQ+ educational literacy school curriculums and mental health programs, and much more.

T Guthrie: T founded WhyHive in 2018, a data science consultancy. They’re also a published researcher, TEDx speaker and musician. They’ve worked to advocate for gender diversity and inclusion in the tech and music industry.

Teresa Cochrane: Teresa is a proud pansexual Dunghutti Gumbaynggirr woman who is currently living and working on Bunjalung Country. In addition to their work in environmental science and koala conservation, she is passionate about advocation for LGBTQIA+ community and ensuring safe spaces and open for personal expression.

Thomas James Stanley Jessup: Thomas is a human rights law professional and currently works as the LGBT Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy Analyst at Thorne Harbour Health.

Tierney Marey:  Tierney’s professional work is dedicated to improving the higher education student experience, with a particular passion for supporting underrepresented cohorts. Tierney’s PhD research examines the embodied experiences of equity practitioners in higher education. She uses creative, feminist, and queer methods and theories to disrupt normative approaches to knowledge creation and sharing.

Xavier James:  Xavier is the author of his debut book ‘Come Undone’; a raw and emotional memoir highlighting existing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ students in Australian religious schools and the lack of queer education in the curriculum.

OIP Staff

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