Earlier this month, Board Chair Ruth McNair AM represented Pride Foundation Australia (PFA) at the 2025 Queer Displacements conference.
This was the third Queer Displacements conference, coordinated by the Forcibly Displaced People Network, held in Melbourne. This followed the first in Canberra in 2019 and second in Sydney during World Pride in 2023. This is a unique event that brings together LGBTIQA+ forcibly displaced people, refugee advocates, peak bodies including NGOs in the refugee and LGBTIQA+ areas.
PFA was the major ‘Human Rights’ sponsor for this event for $24,000, which funded scholarships for lived experience participants. Other sponsors included ASRC, FASSTT, SSI, Switchboard, Victorian Government (Pride Events Fund) and Australian Government (Multicultural Grassroots initiatives grant).
Launch of a new roadmap for queer forcibly displaced people
This conference saw the launch of PFA-funded Roadmap for Action: Achieving Asylum and Migration Justice for LGBTIQA+ Forcibly Displaced People.
This roadmp was written by a coalition of about 30 individuals and organisations nationally. The panel including Dr Renee Dixson (FDPN), Maria Dimopoulos (Settlement Council of Australia), Jasmina Bajraktarevic-Hayward (Startts NSW and on PFA refugee advisory group) and Ruth McNair. Maria committed to improving the queer focus of SCOA, saying “Numbers don’t determine the value of human dignity”, to counteract a common mainstream argument against doing queer work.
The future of philanthropy for LGBTQIA+ forcibly displaced people
Ruth McNair presented on the role of philanthropy for queer forcibly displaced people, describing the desperate need for funding to overcome the heavy reliance on volunteerism in this sector.
There is a need to unlock funders who are reluctant at best due to their complete lack of connection and awareness of queer refugees. PFA have a strong commitment to continue funding forcibly displaced queer people in Australia as a LGBTQIA+ specific philanthropic, but also to challenge mainstream philanthropy to step up to build the funding pool.
Several PFA-funded projects were presented at the conference
- Many Coloured Sky peer support group in Melbourne
- Third Queer culture peer support group in Brisbane, including a partnership with the Queensland LGBTI Legal service to support domestic violence victims with their resource Manual for Liberatory Conscious Practice for Queer Migrants: Within the Context of Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland
- Kathleen Openshaw from Uni Western Sydney on her research with African Christian churches
- Taya Ketelaar-Jones on legal issues around seeking asylum in Tasmania
- Gretel Emerson and Katie Wrigley on the RACS work around SOGIESC
This year’s Queer Displacements conference was an important event that raised the voices of LGBTIQA+ forcibly displaced people, and we are proud that Pride Foundation Australia was able to represent our focus on this work.
