In 2020, Pride Foundation Australia began our focus on the Key Area of LGBTQIA+ refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia.
LGBTQIA+ refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia face unique challenges accessing community and settlement support that is both affirming of their gender and/or sexuality and culturally appropriate. Since queer refugees and people seeking asylum are often doing so from countries and cultures that are not accepting of LGBTQIA+ identities, they often struggle to find a sense of belonging and community within their own diaspora and the Australian queer community.
There is very little funding—government or otherwise—to improve the conditions of settlement and support for LGBTQIA+ refugees and asylum seekers.
Our knowledge in this area is significant, but there are many groups that have real expertise and lived experience, and we want to work with them in partnership. Groups we have collaborated with include…
Ruth McNair (Chair, PFA), Mollie Hewitt (PFA), Ayan Dasvarma (PFA), Mayna Hung (Asylum Seeker Centre Support Group), Renee Dixson (Forcibly Displaced People Network FDPN), Alex Duarte (FDPN), Noushin Barghi (Lived experience), Ian Seal (Three For All Foundation), Jasmina Bajraktarevic (Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors), Edwin Adrianta (Third Queer Culture), Mikhael Touma (Queer Arab Australia), Farnaz Shahimi (Foundation House)
Ruth McNair (Chair, PFA), Dennis Altman (Patron PFA), Sarina Jackson (PFA), Peter Waters (PFA), Liz Rickman (ALMA), Amber Loomis (LGBTI Health Australia), Renee Dixson (Forcibly Displaced People Network FDPN), Ian Seal (Three for All), Manu Kailom (Many Coloured Sky), Alastair Lawrie, Sophie de Rohan (Refugee Immigration Legal Centre VIC), Alison Ryan and Ben Lumsdaine (Refugee Advice and Casework Service RACS NSW), Margherita Coppolino (National Ethnic Disability Alliances), Azlan A.P. (Uniting), Olivia Coljar (Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Service WA), Emily Drew (Multicultural Australia QLD), Meryl Jones (Mater Refugee Health Service QLD), Satrio Nindyo Istiko (QLD), Julian Punch (Rainbow Communities Tasmania Inc. Organisation with special reference to the LGBTIQ+ Asylum Seeker Group from the 72 Countries that Execute, Imprison, Persecute and Torture), Heather Grace Jones (STARTTS NSW), Toni Maldari (Refugee Health Service SA), Frances Rush (ASC NSW), Greg Storer (ASRC VIC).
Canberra Peer-Led Support Group Funding
Supporting the work of the peer-led LGBTIQ refugee and asylum seeker support group in Canberra.
Peer Support Officer Employment
To employ an other-gendered refugee/asylum-seeker to work alongside their Peer Support Officer at the Queer Asylum Seekers support group.
National Data Snapshot-Youth Settlement 2023
The development of a national survey and consultation to explore to specific settlement experiences and subsequent needs of young LGBTQIA+ refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.
Melbourne Peer-Led Support Group Funding
Supporting the work of the Peer led LGBTIQ refugee and asylum seeker support group in Melbourne.
Online Training: Building service capacity to work with LGBTIQ+ forcibly displaced people
The development of an online training resource on LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers for settlement services and LGBTIQ organisations. Available at: www.fdpn.org.au/lgbtiq-settlement-training
LGBTIQA+ Refugee Inclusive Practice Training for Community Workers and Legal Workers
Safer Together
A guide to Australian law relating to LGBTQIA+ anti-discrimination and health rights, which will be translated into 15 languages and recorded as audio files.
Sydney Peer-Led Support Group Funding
Supporting the work of the Peer led LGBTIQ refugee and asylum seeker support group in Sydney.
Satrio Nindyo Istiko, Andrian Liem, Edwin Adrianta Surijah, Ignacio Correa-Velez, Understanding key priority areas of mental health among queer asylum seekers and refugees in Australia through the lens of structural violence: A modified Delphi method study, Journal of Refugee Studies, 2024;, feae067, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feae067
Presented to the LGBTI Parliamentary Friends, Canberra Co-Chairs Mr Warren Entsch MP, Mr Graham Perrett MP and Senator Janet Rice This training module has been created in partnership with Meridian, an ACT-based LGBTIQ+ peer-led organisation, BridgeMeals, Melbourne-based community group for LGBITQ+ refugees and migrants, Migration Council of Australia a national non for profit supporting better outcomes for migrants and refugees and ANU Centre for Digital Humanities Research. The creation of this module was possible thanks to a grant from the Pride Foundation Australia.
Presented to the LGBTI Parliamentary Friends, Canberra Co-Chairs Mr Warren Entsch MP, Mr Graham Perrett MP and Senator Janet Rice By Associate Professor Ruth McNair AM, Chairperson Pride Foundation Australia. On behalf of The Pride Foundation Australia LGBTIQA+ advisory group
Watch these videos from partner organisations on the work we’ve completed around LGBTQIA+ Refugee & Asylum Seekers in Australia.
Community Sponsorship is a proven method to enable safe settlement through arrangement of a humanitarian visa in a transition country, safe passage to the host country, and local community support for at least the first year. We’re working to build the financial and people resources of the LGBTIQ+ refugee sponsorship sub-fund.
Pride Foundation Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, in so-called Australia. We acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that it always was, and always will be Aboriginal land. We pay our respects to the Elders past and present.
Pride Foundation Australia pays respect to the traditional custodians of the land and sea on which we live, work and play, we pay our respects to Elders past and present, acknowledging that sovereignty was never ceded.
Pride Foundation Australia commits through the resources we have available to us, to work with, for, and alongside Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and South Sea Islander LGBTIQ+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy peoples and communities to embed a self-determined future.
We further commit the contribution of a significant proportion of grant funding received to Aboriginal Torres Strait South Sea Islander LGBTIQ+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy led initiatives to improve social outcomes.
Australia was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
