Here are some Questions to Ask Yourself Before Coming Out. We recommend you think about these in regards to your own personal circumstances – everyone and everyone’s family is different so only use this info if you think it will work for you. Take time to think about this;

Read more: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Coming Out

 

Coming out to parents and friends is rarely easy, so planning your strategy in advance can make things go much more smoothly. Remember that your fears and their fears will trigger reactions so stay cool and take things easy… the following are some suggested "do's" and "don'ts" from some counselors and researchers… Good luck!

 

Read more: Suggested Do’s and Dont’s Of Coming Out

Our sexuality is that part of us that expressed through our sexual activities and relationships. It is represented in our feelings, behaviours and our sexual identity. A person’s sexuality can be homosexual, heterosexual, pansexual, bisexual. A person’s sexual identity is how they choose to describe their sexuality. They may choose a label like gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, or many others. Many people also choose not to label their sexuality. Everyone expresses their sexuality differently with various levels of diversity. Many people’s sexuality and sexual identity may change at different times of their lives.

 

Read more: Sexuality

“Gender refers to the economic, social and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female.”
Source: Transforming health systems: gender and rights in reproductive health. WHO, 2001.

 

A person’s gender is how a person, thinks, acts, dresses and speaks which distinguishes them as masculine or feminine. It’s the sociological construction of one’s maleness or femaleness. A person’s gender can be masculine, feminine, both and/or androgynous. Everyone expresses their gender differently with various levels of diversity or deviance from society’s expectations.

Read more: Gender Diversity

Our identity is our sense of ourselves, who we are, and our character, culture, values, lifestyle and personality.Self esteem (how much a person likes, accepts, and respects themselves overall as a person) is strongly linked to our identity, as our sense of ourselves determines how much we like & respect ourselves. There are things we can do to enhance our self esteem, like writing a list of your strengths or favourite characteristics or talents, or things you wouldn’t change about yourself. You can also do that with a friend and write about each other’s strengths or talents. Sometimes just spending time appreciating yourself can really make you feel good!

Read more: Identity

Mental Health is a term that broadly describes our mental wellbeing. It’s about our state of mind, and also our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It’s also about our relationship with the outside world, with other people, and with society. It’s also about how we think about and relate to our selves, and participate in society.

Read more: Mental Health

When things are difficult to deal with on your own it’s important to get support. You may have people in your life that you already do or can get support from. Sometimes that’s enough and other times we need more than that. Sometimes just having someone like a friend or family member listen to how we’re feeling is all we need to feel better. Other times a professional’s knowledge can help us figure out how to deal with things that are more tricky.

Read more: Support - Where to go and who to talk to...

Sexual health is about having a healthy sense of your sexuality, having healthy sexual and reproductive organs, and feeling good about your sexuality and sexual experiences. It can be hard to feel you have good sexual health when society doesn’t seem to have a positive and respectful approach to your sexuality and when laws, social norms and/or cultures prevent all of our sexual rights from being respected, protected and fulfilled. Unfortunately we can’t snap our fingers and change this (though there’s plenty you can do in your community and activism to promote this change). But this makes it even more important for us to maintain our sexual health to the best of our ability.

Read more: Sexual Health and Staying Safe

Relationships can be in all forms, from romantic and/or sexual relationships to friendships and family relationships. Relationships can have a huge impact on us and our lives. They can impact our lives in all different ways; good, bad and confusing.

Read more: Relationships

Being same sex attracted, sex and/or gender diverse can make it harder to meet other who understand where you are coming from so it’s important to link in with the community for support, social networks, or to do your bit to help others in the community. There’s heaps out there!

Read more: Find out what’s going on in our community and get involved?

Online safety is really important these days as we spend more and more time using the internet. Here are some tips for keeping yourself safe when you’re online;

Read more: Online Safety

Being same sex attracted, sex and/or gender diverse and having a disability can be hard. Our society has a history of denying that people who have disabilities have a sexuality at all (let alone diverse sexuality!) Many people still think this way and the result is a “double taboo” around sexuality and disability. Many people with disabilities can be denied choices and access to information about sexuality and sexual health.

Read more: Disability and Sexuality

Living in rural and regional areas and being same sex attracted, sex and/or gender diverse can pose even more challenges, but support is out there!

Freedom Centre provides Info beyond Perth via email, phone, and our website and you can also get involved with the online FC Community in our forum, and on our blogspot page.

 

GLCS also provides telephone counselling and info around the state - call 1800 184 527 (free country line) or check out their website www.glcs.org.au for more info.

Read more: Beyond Perth