One of the unique capacities that the rainbow community has in Tasmania is the ability to work together to achieve protection within our local communities as a minority and sometimes-marginalised group. While the Penguin debate demonstrated that excellent State antidiscrimination legislation, which may or may not be the ‘best in the land, does not necessarily counteract the ‘hate gays’ culture which is alive and well in the State.
The ‘fear factor’ of being disclosed as being gay or lesbian, complicates the development of a culture change to ensure our safety and general well being. It also can lead to complacency by agencies that are there to support us. Again as we saw in the Penguin situation, denial on our part is a natural response to being exposed to rejection and worse the violence of the old culture that is expert at getting rid of people with new ideas and life styles especially present in isolated rural areas of the state. These extremist groups should not be confused with religious fundamentalists who while they discriminate against us and condemn us to perdition also say they love us. The real intimidation comes from small but active groups similar to the neo Nazi like haters who not only hate ‘gays’ are also associated with strong racist intimidation and sometimes violence.
We know that there are many reasons why GLBTI people do not make official reports of the violence they experience on their neighbourhoods. This ‘fear factor’ in our community makes disclosure to authorities of hate and discrimination very difficult for most GLBTI people in the community and can only be resolved by a ‘courageous’ stand. Most people are not able to take this stand and would be unwise to do so without very good self-protection skills.
As a result of the highly publicised debate on Stephen Roach’s and his partner’s return to the mainland the Coming Out Proud Program Community Liaison Committees in four regions are hearing very similar stories from gay and lesbian couples experiencing neighbourhood discrimination and harassment in a highly intimidating way including threats of violence.
Only a concerted and planned community approach with highly developed strategies will work. In turn a strong community education approach needs to be developed in all regions and localities, which has the approval and bi-partisan support of community leaders and all relevant organisations. COPP is committed to developing a collaborative approach in this direction through the Community Liaison Committees and as supported through local government.
The Coming Forward Program run by Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria in conjunction with the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officers Program of Victoria Police and is funded by the Victorian Law Foundation is an excellent model that may assist us in Tasmania. Coming Forward can be found on www.comingforwardsurvey.org.au gathers important data about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) people’s experiences of violence and harassment which are not currently included in officially collected statistics. Coming Forward gathers GLBTI people’s experiences of reporting violence and how police, courts and other community and professional organisations treated them.
This is similar to the growing initiative of the COPP Community Liaison Committees in Tasmania. Several gay and lesbian couples have met with the Tasmanian Police Minister to tell their stories of intimidation and press for a cultural inclusive ‘gay friendly communities’ forum in local and regional communities.
While the police portfolio is not the only appropriate agency to coordinate such an approach, COPP is being assisted to meet with other departments, including Tourism, that could also contribute to creating ‘gay friendly’ forums at local and regional levels through the Community Liaison Committees and other special GLBTI agencies. These agencies besides Tourism include Police & Justice as well as Health & Human Services and Education.
In a meeting with the Minister for Police and Police Commissioner eariler this year, this group of gay and lesbian people united in their common experience of intimidation presented a list of areas that could improve police handling of ‘gay related’ incidents of harassment and intimidation. This list includes the following areas for critical review and adjustment as follows;
• Training for all Police Officers /Magistrates in GLBTI Cultural Awareness Training (as indicated in the State Service Commissioners Direction No 3 Workplace Diversity)
• GLBTI Police Officer Recruitment Program – GLBTI recruitment represents the ‘diversity in the community’ – 10% (as indicated in the State Service Commissioners Direction No 3 Workplace Diversity)
• Tasmania GLBTI Police Reference Group is active in considering discrimination and violence and developing appropriate protocols
• Assessment, review & evaluation of violence, harassment & discrimination incidents including reporting procedures for the Tasmania Together Benchmarks
• Complaints are dealt with in privacy in police stations
• Restraint Orders are able to be taken out by Police in relation to TADC matters-not complainants
• Local and regional access to GLBTI Police Liaison Officers
• GLBTI Police Liaison officers are part of diversity cultural change in local/regional areas & police stations.
• GLBTI Police Liaison Officers are recruited and located in local & regional areas
• COPP K/H CLC Committee members are available to provide forum/training opportunities in local police stations
• COPP Committee members are available to be part of GLBTI training to Police i.e. Cadets, Access & Equity training
• Access & referral to counselling available in Police Stations
• Local community cultural awareness forums supporting ‘pink tourism and enterprise development as part of the Clever & Kind Tasmania.
Just as cultures of discrimination and intimidation can adversely affect the local economy especially in the areas of tourism so ‘gay friendly communities’ can create many economic benefits for local communities that are in decline. The idea of setting up forums to develop inclusion as a principle community value are exactly what the new Premier David Bartlett is espousing in his ‘clever kinder Tasmania’.
Julian Punch AM is co-convenor of the Coming Out Proud Program (COPP). www.comingoutproud.org
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