LGBTIQA+ Affairs
The ACT Greens are committed to strengthening Canberra as a beacon of inclusivity and celebration for LGBTIQA+ people. We have made significant strides in securing rights and enhancing protections, but our work is far from finished.
We will continue to invest in queer arts, a vibrant nightlife, and community organisations, ensuring that every LGBTIQA+ person feels safe and supported.
With ongoing reforms, such as expanding access to healthcare and housing, we are building a future where everyone — regardless of gender identity or sexuality — can thrive.
Canberra will remain Australia’s capital of equality, and the ACT Greens will keep leading the way.
THE ACT GREENS WILL:
- Use every vote, every time to support LGBTIQA+ people
- Promote the safety, health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ Canberrans
- Increase support for community organisations, including services specifically for LGBTIQA+ people
- Champion artists, including queer artists, and a vibrant night time economy so that every town centre has an entertainment precinct
- Enhance SpringOUT so that Canberra can continue to support and celebrate the whole queer community
- Not allow any government subsidy or procurement to benefit organisations or companies known to persecute LGBTIQA+ people.
JUMP TO: Safe to be ourselves | Health & Wellbeing | Bigger, better SpringOut | Putting our money where our values are
Safe to be ourselves
Backing the Trans Justice Canberra Pledge.
Some LGBTIQA+ people are born here and others choose to move to the Capital of Equality. Together, we have secured many equal rights under the law, but the work is far from done.
It’s crucial that we continue to support and advocate for LGBTIQA+ individuals - including and beyond legal protections. As we have seen here and around the world, LGBTIQA+ people are more likely to face prejudice and isolation than the population in general. Even in Canberra, LGBTIQA+ people have faced this threat.
From the tip of Tuggeranong to the top of Gungahlin, and West Belconnen to Oaks Estate, we will work with communities to ensure Canberra is always safe and inclusive – and celebrate the LGBTIQA+ community.
We want trans and gender diverse people to feel just as safe and at home in Canberra as everyone else, and so we commit to the Trans Justice Canberra pledges to:
- Take action against the attacks on trans lives, safety and freedom
- Support reforms that give trans people the same rights and protections as everyone else
- Support trans healthcare to be made more accessible and affordable for everyone who needs it
- Invest in trans lives by working to combat homelessness, poverty, discrimination, and suicide
ACT Greens policies like our plan for 10,000 public homes, freezing rent increases and boosting renters’ rights are there to help ensure everyone has a safe, secure home, while our health policies include creating four new mental health walk-in centres, delivering 160,000 free doctors visits each year and making emergency ambulances free.
Supporting LGBTIQA+ Health & Wellbeing
Funding community groups to provide gender-affirming care
Some LGBTIQA+ people are born here and others choose to move to the Capital of Equality. Together, we have secured many equal rights under the law, but the work is far from done.
Right now, community-based LGBTIQA+ organisations provide LGBTIQA+ people with crucial support. Often, these organisations are the only place where trans and gender diverse people feel safe and supported to access peer-led gender-affirming care. Organisations that provide this essential support don’t have the funding security they need to provide ongoing gender-affirming care that meets the needs of trans and gender diverse Canberrans.
The ACT Greens will ensure a wide spectrum of LGBTIQA+ community organisations have sustainable funding, as outlined in the ACT Greens ‘Fund the ACT’s Community Sector’ initiative.
Additionally, we will recognise, support and invest in organisations that offer community-based, peer-led gender-affirming care to trans and gender diverse Canberrans.
We are particularly keen to support LGBTIQA+ organisations which are intersectional and open up conversations and perspectives, including within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities.
ENSURING GOVERNMENT SERVICES MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS
We need an effort across the entire ACT Government to ensure that the interests of LGBTIQA+ people are well represented. For example, we need to consider:
- How we ensure that ongoing provision of population healthcare considers and delivers on the needs of LGBTIQA+ people
- How we can continue to provide safe spaces for LGBTIQA+ young people
- How we support LGBTIQA+ parents and families with sensitivity to the challenges they and their children may face
- How ACT public schools can continue to offer education that equips students to have positive discussions about diversity and inclusion, and support fellow students – including ensuring that schools are well equipped to support positive conversations about diverse characteristics and identities – and move quickly to stop bullying and harassment.
Making Canberra a lively, creative city for all
Bigger, better SpringOut
SpringOUT is an icon in Canberra’s LGBTIQA+ calendar. It’s a cacophony of Canberra’s queer life. The ACT Greens support for community organisations and arts will help ensure that SpringOUT is even bigger and better in future years.
Ongoing support for community organisations and the arts will ensure that LGBTIQ+ people have access to an arts and culture scene that speaks to them throughout the year.
A CREATIVE CAPITAL OF EQUALITY
Canberra has amazingly talented queer performers. The ACT Greens will double arts funding so that we have a liveable city, enlivened by art, music and rich culture that everyone can access.
The Greens will champion the nighttime economy across each of the ACT’s town centres, by ensuring that reforms that the Government has started are fully enacted – including declaring entertainment precincts so live venues can remain viable, reducing administrative burden on businesses, and encourage a greater range of nighttime service offerings.
In addition, getting to Sydney to see friends and family, a show or Mardi Gras should be quick, easy and environmentally friendly – we’ll take every opportunity to champion faster rail to Sydney, working immediately with Commonwealth and NSW Governments to make this a reality.
PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR VALUES ARE
The ACT Greens will not support any ACT Government subsidy of any organisation or company that is known to persecute LGBTIQA+ people. This means that the Office for International Engagement, Economic Development and Procurement ACT will need to consider the purchase of any product or service or any subsidies to, for example, foreign airlines which may ultimately be owned by a Government which persecutes LGBTIQA+ people.
ACT GREENS WILL ALWAYS FIGHT TO PRESERVE AND EXTEND THE RIGHTS OF LGBTIQA+ PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES
The ACT is home to a strong LGBTIQA+ community that is embraced by our city.
The Greens are the only party that uses every vote, every time, to advance the rights and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ people.
The ACT Greens want to continue to create an environment in which LGBTIQA+ people are celebrated and feel free to be themselves, and like everyone else – can achieve all that they set out to.
We have nation leading laws protecting LGBTIQA+ people, and over the past term the ACT Greens championed amendments to Birth, Deaths and Marriages legislation to allow people to easily and freely change their name and sex, such that it’s not visible when details have been altered.
There remains more to do, and the ACT Greens will continue to champion LGBTIQA+ people.