Thread by @alawriedejesus

I began writing my LGBTI rights blog 9 years ago today: alastairlawrie.net

It's fair to say I really didn't know what I was doing in the beginning.

But through perseverance, I think it's slowly improved, each year since then.

And I'm proud of this growing body of work. 1/

To mark the anniversary, I thought I'd share 9 posts which are important to me, often for quite different reasons. 2/

The first post is about Mark Latham's anti-trans kids Bill, which in my view is the worst legislative attack on LGBTI rights in Australia this century.

I'm proud more than 10,000 people have read this, & hopefully better understand the threat it poses. 3/
alastairlawrie.net/2020/08/09/i-s…

The second, which has been read almost as many times, is this article explaining the four main problems with the Morrison Govt's #ReligiousDiscriminationBill.

With that Bill likely to return later this year, I think it remains relevant today. 4/
alastairlawrie.net/2020/01/27/the…

The third is this comparative guide to the complicated patch-work that is LGBTI anti-discrimination and anti-vilification law in Australia.

Again, I hope I've improved our community's understanding of their rights - as well as what needs to be fixed. 5/
alastairlawrie.net/2017/07/29/a-q…

The fourth is the hardest thing I've ever decided to write, and especially the most difficult post to press 'publish': this account of my five years of homophobic abuse at a religious boarding school in Queensland in the early 1990s. 6/
alastairlawrie.net/2019/03/17/the…

⬆️ Those experiences have made me a passionate advocate for removing the special privileges allowing religious schools to discriminate.

And for holding @ScottMorrisonMP to account for his broken promise to protect vulnerable LGBT kids. Kids like I was. 7/
alastairlawrie.net/2020/10/11/sco…

One thing I've tried to do consistently (sometimes successfully, other times less so), is to be an ally for trans & gender diverse members of our community - including the right to access identity documentation which reflects their gender identity. 8/
alastairlawrie.net/2020/05/02/did…

The seventh also reflects my attempts at ally-ship, this time for intersex people.

It's by far the least-read of the 9 posts on this list. But I'm proud my support for intersex rights stretches back to the early days of this site. And continues today. 9/
alastairlawrie.net/2013/07/01/sub…

* In terms of being an ally for trans & gender diverse people, & intersex people, I've been incredibly fortunate to learn from some amazing activists & advocates, like @salgoldsaidso and @morgancarpenter - & benefit from their understanding when I've inevitably made mistakes. 10/

The eighth post reflects the way in which I've tried to go about my advocacy.

Post 2016 federal election, with the Turnbull Govt attempting to impose a plebiscite on LGBTI Australians, I surveyed the LGBTI community about how they wanted to respond. 11/
alastairlawrie.net/2016/08/07/ple…

The ninth, and last, post points to what I think is one of the biggest challenges facing LGBTI people, both in NSW and nationally: the homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in our nation's largest city.

It's a major problem, and one we have to address. 12/
alastairlawrie.net/2020/09/22/wel…

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read my blog over the past 9 years.

It's far exceeded the modest goals I set myself when I first started out.

I sincerely hope you've found at least some of the posts informative, thought-provoking & maybe even prompted you to take action. 13/

Oh, and in case anyone feared (or hoped!) this meant I was putting the keyboard away, I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon (and under the COVID public health orders, I don't think I'm allowed to anyway...) 14/