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 Suburban GLBT youth groups provide some much-needed help and support for queer kids living outside the gay ghetto. Adam Bub reports.
In cities as geographically dispersed as Sydney, many young GLBT people live in suburbs where gay visibility is not necessarily the norm. Living outside of the city’s ‘gay ghetto’, these young people search for self-affirmation in different ways – gay youth groups in particular provide a confidential and safe environment for GLBT youth to meet one another, and forge a sense of community in their own neighbourhoods.
GAL@H (Gays and Lesbians at Hornsby) is one such group. Run by the Hornsby Shire Council and gay youth service Twenty10, GAL@H aims to empower GLBT youth to feel more comfortable in their own skins, and provide important information about sexual health to its members.
GAL@H assistant group worker, Lara Gerrand, tells SX that the primary goal of the group is to reduce social isolation. “They come because they might not have anyone else to speak to, or feel like they’re not the same as everyone else,” says Gerrand. “These issues are universal, but the kids are further away from the ‘gay’ areas of Sydney, like Newtown and Oxford Street.”
With council support, GAL@H was coordinated by NSW Health in 2002, and taken over by Twenty10 in 2005. Now running fortnightly sessions over a 12-week period, GAL@H is one of four Twenty10 suburban youth groups, alongside GL@M (Gays and Lesbians @ Manly) and the SHOUT OUT groups in North Sydney and Newtown, the latter of which is held at the Twenty10 headquarters, a drop-in service with laundry and shower facilities, internet and semi-supported accommodation.
Twenty10 group worker Evan Cooper runs all three groups. “We use a social and educational model. That includes discussing sexuality issues and sexual health, and also skin, breast and testicular cancer checks,” Cooper tells SX. “Relationships come up a lot, because it’s the first time they’ve been able to use same-sex terminology in conversation. They can ask us pretty much anything – and they will!”
Although GAL@H is for people aged between 12-25, the average age is 15-20, and up to a dozen people attend the meetings, which alternate between casually structured discussion groups at Hornsby’s HYPE youth centre, and various outings (including dinners, going to the movies and going tenpin bowling).
One of the recent activities involved each person writing on post-its any questions relating to queer life that they’d like answered, but were too afraid to ask. At the next meeting, Cooper will answer the questions with his own research.
“I am stunned that there are so many people who come to the group who are 15, and their sexuality is the least of their issues and they’re out,” Cooper says. “That didn’t happen for me or my friends until later. It’s really inspiring that they’ve got the guts to come out at high school.”
In an area known for its high concentration of religious-based private schools, coming out can be particularly challenging. Richard, 20, says that his school counsellor couldn’t understand issues involving sexuality, and advised him to call the Kid’s Helpline, who directed him to GAL@H and GL@M.
“I saw counsellors every day. Because I was at a private Anglican school, my school counsellor couldn’t answer any particular questions or make me feel like it was normal,” Richard tells SX. “In the beginning, GAL@H was for me discovering who I was, but now I go to meet new people and help them out too.”
Meeting local gays and lesbians seems to be the main motivation for most of the group’s members. Jack, 17, moved from the country to attend an all-boys private boarding school, and has just joined the group. “For me it’s pretty important right now,” he tells SX. “I’ve not known any other gay people.”
Tash, 17, also found out about GAL@H through her school counsellor, and has been attending for two years. “We really look forward to it,” says Tash. “I’ve made good friends here, and found out about other organisations like ACON through this.”
The largely-closeted culture of Sydney’s northern suburbs means that homophobic incidents are rarely reported, but certainly do exist. Richard recalls an experience he had while shopping with a friend in Chatswood. “I was spat at by schoolchildren, and they called us ‘poofs’,” he says. But this is no worse than the city, he adds. “On Oxford Street, I was walking arm-in-arm with my flatmate, and this guy in a pizza store called us faggots. I said back to him ‘if you’re going to be homophobic, get off Oxford Street’, and he threw a chair at my flatmate’s head.”
Thankfully, however, Richard, Tash and Jack have had predominantly positive experiences with their own parents.
Richard came out to his parents long after starting to attend GAL@H. “They told me they thought I was gay when I was four years old,” he laughs. “The only issue Mum had with me going to the group was that I wasn’t eating dinner at home every second Wednesday!”
To find out more about GAL@H, contact
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