Alex Day talks about community values
I was involved in community activities from a very early age. My parents were heavily involved in the football club and it taught me a lot about community values.
So these days I enjoy putting something back into the GLBTIQ community. I enjoy trying to make it better. And it is great to see people change over the years. They will come to a group when they are quite young and insecure; then five years down the track you’ll see them along Oxford Street or on a Mardi Gras float. They may not be out but it’s great to know that I have played a little part in their acceptance of their sexuality.
A lot of people come to us before they start going out on the scene, so the first gay thing they do is in a community hall in Belmore or Dubbo, and eventually they build up their confidence and may start going to bars or clubs in Sydney.
When people join Come Out, they may go to a pub or a club with other likeminded individuals. Sometimes it will be a meeting in a community hall or a backyard barbecue. Some groups want to get more involved in the political side of the community, and that’s up to them.
At the moment we have a group in Adelaide, quite a few in Sydney, and groups in country NSW, such as Orange, Dubbo, Wagga, Batemans Bay and Parkes.
It all started in 1999, when I noticed that there was nothing for the GLBTIQ community in western Sydney. So a few of us got together one night and went to a coffee shop. We started getting involved in the community, and before we knew it the group had grown.
We have achieved a hell of a lot in just the last 18 months but we are still looking at widening our network -“ there are a lot of areas around Australia that are still not covered.
When I talk to people online, I hear some of them say, It was always so easy for me -“ my parents accepted me straight away, my friends are fine about it, and I was out at school. And that’s great for them -“ that’s fantastic. But for every person like that, there are probably 10 who were shamed or who were bashed. This unfortunately still happens today -“ a whole lot more than people realise.
As told to Cara Davis
Tell us your story: Want to share your story with our readers? We are interested in hearing first-hand accounts of everything from coming out experiences, to your first Mardi Gras, to tales of love, loss and friendship. Submissions should be about 800 words and accompanied by a hi-res photograph of the contributor. Send them to [email protected], marked First Person.
