What does it mean when we use the terms queer and bisexual – and what does the "plus" mean in LGBTQIA+?
The Drum asked three people about their identity and why it is important to them.
Defying gender norms and social expectations
Kathleen Ebbs is courted by big brands keen for them to be part of their queer campaign strategies — and, just as we prepare for the interview, another package of promotional merchandise arrives at their door.
The 25-year-old is a queer artist, writer, actor and content creator in Sydney – some describe them as an influencer.
But Kathleen is conscious of who they support and the lure of the "pink dollar".
Kathleen recognised they were gay from a very young age but only "came out" four years ago.
Being around other queer people "from all other letters of the alphabet", Kathleen started to understand more about their identity.
"I think I had been in the confinements of my own body for so long," they said.
"When I eventually took those steps to embrace who I was, be part of the community and just let myself be who I am, it cracked me open to question everything."
On the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, Kathleen identifies with the L – for Lesbian – and the "plus" – as a "genderqueer person".
"I think my sexuality and my gender has evolved since coming out through being in community and meeting people and learning," they told The Drum.
Kathleen said they had an unconscious bias about their own community and what was considered "normal".
"I had so much learning and unlearning to do."
Kathleen embraces the term "queer", which they describe as an all-encompassing word to describe the expansive nature of sexuality and gender.
"For me, it means sitting outside of the gender and society norms and expectations of what it means to be a human," they said.
"I kind of sit nowhere and everywhere."
Kathleen uses gender-neutral pronouns they/them and she/her pronouns – and the order is "intentional".
They prefer using they/them pronouns.
"Some days I wake up and feel a certain way about my gender, and other days I feel another way, but it all sits in that gender queerness, non-binary fluidity of what gender means to me," Kathleen said.
Kathleen identifies as non-binary and has gone back and forth on keeping she/her pronouns.
"I think the reason why I leave them there is it honours where I have kind of come from," Kathleen said.
'We were radical gays, I suppose'
Franc Hancock lives a quiet life in the New South Wales northern rivers region, working on his massive ink artworks.
The 69-year-old uses natural elements – like water and branches – to transform paper into what he describes as Rorschach test-like ink blots.
Franc's life now is worlds apart from the one he lived in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was one of the 78ers, a group of queer activists who marched down Sydney's Oxford Street in 1978 in a protest parade that has since evolved into Mardi Gras.
"We were very angry at the laws at that time because as homosexuals, it was illegal for us to exist; there were laws against us," Franc told The Drum.
"We could be caught and sent to jail, and at one stage, even sent for psycho-surgery."
Franc told The Drum the 1978 event was intended to be a "fabulous" party of solidarity in the street – but it turned into a clash with heavy-handed police officers.
He said the LGBTQIA+ community had evolved since then.
"Some of us just identified as being queer," he said.
"We weren't gay; we weren't homosexual – we were radical gays, I suppose, some of us were hippies – we didn't fit into the mainstream gay culture.
"Every decade, it seems to put on a new outfit; now that homosexuality is legal, the new LGBTQI group is finding their own identity."
Uncomfortable with labels, against stereotypes
Poet and novelist Omar Sakr identifies as a bisexual, Lebanese, Turkish, Muslim Australian.
"I'm uncomfortable with labels; they rarely fit me entirely," Omar told The Drum.
Omar is married to a woman – Hannah Donnelly – whom he loves more than "he knew it was possible to love somebody".
Omar rallies against the stereotypes of bisexuality.
"It's typically things like, 'You're just confused', 'This is just a phase', 'You're actually secretly gay', or 'You're actually secretly straight'," Omar said.
Part of the reason he keeps the term "bisexual" is to prove a point, particularly when people question his sexuality because he is married to a woman.
"It's a very reductive way of viewing a person's life – defining it by who they are with, rather than the full spectrum of their desires and capacity," he said.
Omar acknowledged there were "privileges" that came from the "seeming heteronormativity" of his marriage to Hannah – especially with his more conservative family members.
"Since I happened to fall in love with a woman, they're able to dismiss it," Omar said.
"They are like, 'Maybe it was an accident sleeping with men' – it wasn't, and it isn't."
Omar said his community also had a "long way to go" when it came to understanding and accepting queer identities and gender fluidity.
With another book of poems about to be released, Omar said he used poetry to understand himself and his place in the world.
"More and more, I identify as queer," he said.
"I feel more comfortable with that word because it doesn't have a clear definition, and it allows for fluidity; it allows for change."
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