Conversations around being LGBTIQ+, seeking asylum and how we can ensure people are safe and feel safe. We will be talking with experts on how we can provide the best kind of support for LGBTIQ+ people who have been forcibly displaced. Our conversations are about sharing stories on challenges and successes in service provision and looking forward, how can we do better?

Speakers:

Tina Dixson (she/her) Co-founder Forcibly Displaced People Network

Tina has dedicated her career to working on the issues of gender and sexuality being driven by her lived experience of being a proud queer refugee woman as well as her academic and professional policy expertise in these areas. She is the co-founder of the Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN), the only registered LGBTIQ+ refugee-led organisation in Australia and a co-convenor Queer Displacements: Sexuality, Migration and Exile conference, the first Australian conference dedicared to LGBTIQ+ displacement. 

Heathergrace Jones (she/her) LGBTIQA+ STARTTS Representative

Heathergrace Jones works in gender equity and social inclusion . She currently job-shares the position of LGBTIQA+ project officer in STARTTS. For the previous decade Heathergrace has worked in Australia, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Pakistan on social justice issues with a focus on media development, participatory action research,and women’s rights.

Pola (she/her) LGBTIQA+ Project Representative STARTTS NSW
A Pacific Islander Transgender woman of colour, Pola has been in Australia for 4 years and is currently seeking asylum. She is a co-trainer at STARTTS for their LGBTIQA+ program and does ongoing work in the project.

Jope (aka Jay) (they/them) LGBTIQA+ Activist, Representative of STARTTS NSW
Jope, who often goes by Jay, is an LGBTIQA activist living in Australia seeking asylum. They want to be a loud voice for the LGBTIQA community and have been building on their activism over the past few years. Their favourite saying is “nothing about us, without us”.

Moderated by Elinor Wilcken (she/her) – Project coordinator at LGBTIQ+ Health Australia
Elinor has worked in community engagement, social justice and community programs coordination for the last decade in Sydney, regional Australia, Tanzania and Kenya. Previously working for 3 years in Refugee settlement strategy and impact and community engagement at Settlement Services International, Elinor now works in project coordination at LGBTIQ+ Health Australia.