Justice Q is our newly launched specialist LGBTIQA+ legal service. It is a service run by and for LGBTIQA+ people and provides a range of legal services to the LGBTQIA+ community in the south-east region.
As one of the oldest CLCs in Australia, SMLS has witnessed many changes to law reform to better protect LGBTQIA+ rights from discrimination.
Our service opened in the 1970s and as many would know a lot of reform began at that time particularly around the mid-70s when South Australia became the first Australian state to legalise sexual conduct between consenting adult males in 1975.
Since that time, other states and territories have progressively repealed archaic laws for necessary law reform to protect LGBTQIA+ rights but we acknowledge more needs to be done.
It was not until very recently that we saw additional changes to legislation regarding marriage equality in 2017 when the right to get married was no longer denied to many in love who previously suffered awful discrimination in that regard.
Marriage equality was the result of decades of hard work by many volunteers working to raise a better understanding of love and equality even since the first Sydney Mardi Gras when hundreds rallied together in 1978 five years after our service first opened.
As SMLS continues to move forward half a century on, our service is constantly looking for better ways to ensure our lawyers and teams are offering community-centric assistance and programs to support marginalised communities that are often discriminated against.
Justice Q is one of those initiatives. As a CLC, with a human rights focus, we have been ready to take up an opportunity that allows our organisation to address gaps in legal inequalities felt by underserved communities including the LGBTIQA+ community.
There has been a rise in harmful discourse about LGBTIQA+ people and communities but what we have seen and heard from our community tells us that harmful discourse is very much the minority view against inclusivity and equality.
In the past five years, the City of Dandenong, City of Casey and Cardinia Shire have seen an emergence of LGBTIQA+ inclusivity initiatives that reflect the rich and diverse south-east communities.
Experience gained through SMLS’ expanding involvement in the local LGBTIQA+ communities pointed to the complex and shifting legal assistance needs of LGBTIQA+ people in Melbourne’s south-east corridor.
Through SMLS’ broad-ranging outreaches, we have seen the significant and varied legal issues that impact people residing in our catchment area, including family violence, family law, migration, workplace discrimination, bullying, harassment and policing.
In addition to this, a suite of law and policy reforms delivered by the Victorian State Government over the preceding 5 years has created a new need for services addressing shifting LGBTQIA+ legal and social issues.
Alongside the introduction of publicly-funded IVF, Victoria’s law reforms have included changes to the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 to include sex characteristics as well as changes to the rights of transgender Victorians impacting birth certificates and marriages.
Despite these reforms, many of our LGBTQIA+ clients remain unaware of their rights and isolated from services. In particular, our school lawyer outreaches have highlighted the significant issues impacting LGBTQIA+ young people as well as the inaccessibility of many statewide services located closer to the city.
These issues all pointed to the need for an LGBTIQA+ specialist service in Melbourne’s South-East corridor, and that is how Justice Q came about.
Over the last year, our team researched, consulted and imagined what the Justice Q program would look like and how it would run. We endeavour to complement the work and services of our peers at Fitzroy Legal Service’s Q+Law program, and previous work done by Southside Justice and Thorne Harbour Health
One of the key takeaways from this process was the need for the Justice Q team to all be members of LGBTIQA+ communities – which has become an integral part of the model we settled on.
The SMLS team are adaptive and future-focused so when calls from advocates, the CLC sector and community are heard by politicians and covered by the media, SMLS will be ready to respond to supportive politicians carrying calls to parliament to create change. We are proud of Justice Q and SMLS’ ability to be responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.
