On Friday 17th October, Daniel was honoured to attend the first GLOBE Community Awards night at Myer Mural Hall.
Nominated by several people, Daniel was named as one of three finalists for the Victorian LGBTI Person of the Year award. The Victorian Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby’s Anna Brown took out the award for her great work in advocating for the LGBTI communities.
On Tuesday 14th October, Daniel delivered two lectures on LGBTI issues for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, studying to work across the Department of Justice.
Noting the gap in current curriculum, this lecture is hoped by administrators to be the beginning of LGBTI inclusion for future years.
On Monday 13th October, Daniel attended the first of a series of meetings with Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to discuss the possibility of a partnership to make schools safer for LGBTI students. There was much interest in Daniel’s Pride & Prejudice educational package, still the only formally-evaluated challenging homophobia program shown to work across both metropolitan and non-metropolitan schools, and both religious and non-religious schools.
Daniel shared his experiences in Australia, as well as internationally when he worked with the Dutch government-funded Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE), particularly the limitations of funding third party organisations to create safer educational settings for LGBTI students.
Stay tuned for news about meetings in late November.
Daniel and Healesville Sanctuary, Tinsel The Wombat.
On Wednesday 8th October, Daniel facilitated a follow-up workshop for Moonee Valley City Council called ‘The Next Step’. Following on from their successful forum for the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) in May this year, a group of Councillors, Council staff and local LGBTI residents came together to talk about what positive change could occur. A range of actions were prioritised by the group, with Moonee Valley excited to put these into action and to continue the conversation.
Read more here:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west/sexuality-and-gender-identity-in-moonee-valley-will-be-discussed-at-forum/story-fngnvmj7-1227076596395
On Monday 6th October, Daniel braved some stormy weather and travelled back to his hometown of Geelong for a screening of The Case Against 8. The well-attended screening would be the first screening of the documentary in regional Australia; congrats to the team of Sharyn Faulkner and co for making it possible. The documentary is a powerful account of the marriage equality movement in the United States, and follows some of the key players throughout (I’m not sure there was a dry eye in the house by the end).
Over recent months Daniel has been asked to deliver workshops across regional federal electorates for Australian Marriage Equality. The aim of these workshops is to give locals the skills to share their story with local MPs and media, as well as some tips on how to deal with everyday resistance.
So far Daniel has travelled to the seats of Corangamite (Geelong, Colac VIC), Ferrer, (Albury NSW), McPherson (Gold Coast QLD) and Wills (Brunswick, Coburg VIC).
Stay tuned for more visits in the coming months.
On Monday 1st September, Daniel travelled north to Brisbane to speak to the ‘Safe Queensland Schools for LGBTIQ students’ Action Group, hosted by the Queensland Teachers’ Union. Teachers, health professionals and LGBTIQ locals came from across SE Queensland, including Ipswich and the Gold Coast, to hear what could be done to better support LGBTI young people and to challenge everyday homophobia.
On Saturday 30th August, Daniel was excited to join the stage with MC Benjamin Law to read from Beyond Priscilla. He was also excited to meet and chat with Sophie Cunningham, amongst others, to compare notes on compiling accounts using people’s own narratives.
On Thursday 28th August, Daniel braved the thick fog on the outskirts of Melbourne to keynote the Cardinia Shire & Taskforce LGBTI Forum for local teachers, health professionals and homophobia-curious others. Also presenting was LGBTI sporting personality, Jason Ball. Safe Schools Coalition Victoria then helped facilitate brainstorming sessions about what could be done locally.
