ECU City Campus at night
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is celebrating Pride Month during November, showcasing a wide range of activities and research initiatives, reflecting ECU's proud tradition of connection and support for the LGBTIQA+ community.
As a significant part of ECU's commitment to building an inclusive and welcoming community for all, ECU's academic staff are conducting a wide range of world-class research initiatives addressing LGBTIQA+ themes.
Pride Yarns, funded through the Medical Research Future Fund, and supported by ECU's Kurongkurl Katitjin centre, is an Aboriginal-led research project, supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal LGBTIQA+SB (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual, sistergirl, brotherboy +) young people through cultural connection, storytelling and relationships with Elders. It builds on research by the nation-wide Walkern Katatdjin (Rainbow Knowledge) project, which aims to improve information and guidance for services contributing to the wellbeing of Aboriginal LGBTIQA+SB young people.
Work by Dr Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, from the School of Business and Law, shines a light on how travel, events and work in the tourism industry shape identity, belonging and inclusion. A major stream of Dr Vorobjovas-Pinta's research relates to the experiences of LGBTIQA+ workers in Antarctic tourism.
Other work by Dr Vorobjovas-Pinta focuses on the Eurovision Song Contest, examining how the contest has become a celebration of queer identity and belonging for its fans. Another of his current projects concerns the Gay Games. One of the largest LGBTIQA+ sport and cultural events in the world, the Gay Games brings together LGBTIQA+ and non- LGBTIQA+ athletes, artists and others, welcoming entrants from countries across the world and promoting acceptance of diverse identities, with the aim of fostering inclusion and diversity within a sporting context. This research is particularly timely given that Perth will host the Gay Games in 2030, providing an opportunity to better understand the event's social, cultural, and economic impacts.
During Pride Month, Dr Lukasz Krzyzowski's team from the School of Arts and Humanities is running an information session on 25 November with Circle Green Community Legal, a not-for-profit community legal centre, on applying for a protection visa on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics, an important service for people escaping persecution in their home countries on these grounds.
Dr Krzyzowski is also involved with the Gay Games, advising on safe and inclusive participation, particularly for people travelling from countries where same-sex sexual activity is criminalised or gender-diverse people face legal penalties and discrimination. Dr Krzyzowski is conducting a number of other projects and community initiatives in the LGBTIQA+ space, with a focus on migrants and older people. He leads the Rainbow Migrants Living Lab, part of the Research Program in Migration, Diversity and Care at the School of Arts and Humanities, which champions community-led, participatory research and advocacy to support multicultural, multilingual and multifaith LGBTIQA+ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Dr Krzyzowski is also a Chief Investigator on Rainbow Care, a national study co-designing rainbow inclusive residential aged care.
“Arriving in a new country or moving into aged care should not mean hiding who you are to feel safe. Yet that is the reality for many LGBTIQA+ migrants, refugees, people seeking asylum and older people," he says.
"Education gives people the knowledge to claim their rights and the confidence to ask for help. It also teaches services and the wider community what respect looks like in practice, from recognising a partner to honouring someone's faith and culture."
In fitting recognition of his work, Dr Krzyzowski just received the ECU Staff Excellence Award – Courage, for his research, advocacy and community work with LGBTIQA+ migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics.
Professor Mindy Blaise, from the School of Education, has carried out work, together with colleagues, which exposes everyday sexism in Australian universities, looking in particular at the role of anti-trans ideologies in public debate. The work seeks to improve the ways in which gender-based discrimination is understood and addressed in Australian universities, drawing on data from within Australian higher education settings, and tries to understand how conversations relating to LGBTIQA+ people circulate and are taken up within society.
LGBTIQA+ experiences of homophobia or transphobia at school are at the centre of a new book chapter, 'Poofy and Freckles: Un/belonging in the Australian School System', by Dr David Rhodes, also from the School of Education. The work aims to promote positive discussions about sexuality in schools, something that has been largely absent in the past.
Dr Rhodes uses his own childhood experiences of homophobia and bullying to reflect on the current status quo, through an auto-ethnographic methodology. He reflects that "one of my biggest disappointments (if that is the right word) about my early teens was the lack of information that was (un)available for young people about sexuality and gender".
Dr Rhodes has also conducted research on children's and young adult literature with LGBTIQA+ themes which will be published soon. He argues that discrimination and bullying in schools can only be challenged through education, which includes age-appropriate material, from early-childhood, through primary to secondary school, and which is reflective of LGBTIQA+ people and the issues that impact on them.
"It is only through inclusion and the celebration of the full spectrum of diversity in schools that we will ever be able to truly dismantle heteronormativity, and create genuine acceptance and inclusion," he says.
With these and many other research initiatives, ECU as a university is making a strong contribution to the LGBTIQA+ community, demonstrating engagement with an inclusive and welcoming culture. The breadth of projects reflects a continuing commitment across the University to fostering and advancing inclusion, equity and understanding through research and collaboration. Together, these efforts are helping to support an environment where diversity is valued, identities are respected, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive, creating positive change for LGBTIQA+ people and their allies at ECU, within Western Australia, and beyond.
On the night of the Perth Pride Parade, the ECU City building will light up in vibrant rainbow colours to mark the event. There's something for everyone during Pride Month, with a packed calendar of events and activities taking place, including Bunbury Pride Fairday (21 November), the Pride Run and Walk (21 November), Walkern Wirin (21 November), and the Perth Pride Parade (28 November).
