Health in Difference 2010

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The 2010 Health in Difference conference: Doing Diversity was held from 29th April to 1st May 2010 at the Mercure Hotel in Sydney. We would like to acknowledge and thank the traditional custodians of the land on which we came together, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay our respect to their elders, past and present and future.

It was a space to address issues affecting the health and wellbeing of a diverse range of sexuality, sex and gender diverse (LGBTI) communities. We took diversity to mean the multidimensional complexity of LGBTI identities and the social factors that determine so much of LGBTI lives. Health in Difference 2010 allowed constructive and lively debate around how we can do diversity more consciously and respectfully and was itself a space to try to do just that.

The conference was a fantastic success, attracting 212 participants from across Australia and New Zealand. This was the highest number of participants recorded at any of the Health in Difference conferences so far.

Health in Difference 2010 was made possible by the generous financial and in-kind support of our sponsors, who are listed at the bottom of the page. They enabled us to provide scholarships to 32 participants who would not otherwise have been able to attend and ensured diversity among participants. We estimate that approximately 25% of participants identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, 13% as 'Multicultural/CALD', and between 15-20% as trans, intersex or genderqueer.

In addition to our sponsors, we are indebted to all those others who provided support in-kind, e.g. assisting with proposal selction, and as exhibitors and satchel sponsors.

Health in Difference 2010: provided a forum for discussion, debate, sharing, learning, networking and organising around issues relevant to LGBTI health showcased the work, experiences and learnings of practitioners in the field of LGBTI health helped build connections, collaborations and alliances between practitioners, researchers, policy makers, advocates and community members provided an inclusive, participative, empowering and fun conference experience

Themes

Health in Difference 2010 had the overarching theme and aim of "doing diversity", and during the conference we addressed a range of key LGBTI health issues, such as mental health, ageing, alcohol and other drugs, violence, parenting, health service access and effective health promotion strategies. The 2010 conference focused on the following five key themes:

Social Inclusion, Exclusion and Resilience: A Social View of Health

Indigenous Health and Wellbeing: Culture, Context and Colonisation

Sex and Gender Diversity: Differences Within Diversity

Community: The Changing Nature of Our Relationships

Politics, Evidence and Practice: Creating Change

The conference program included 6 workshops (interactive 90 minute sessions), 47 papers (30 minute presentations), two associated events (Welcome Reception and Alliance General Meeting) as well as numerous networking sesions. The conference had a strong networking and participation focus.

Participants' Choice Awards

The following presentations recived ‘participants’ choice’ awards from the Health in Difference National LGBTI Health Conference 2010: Doing Diversity.

• Crystal Johnson and Bertram Tipungwuti in the stream Indigenous Health and Wellbeing for the presentation “Issues faced by sistergirls in the NT”
• Anthony Venn-Brown in the stream Community: the Changing Natures of Our Relationships for the presentation “An emerging group in the LGBTI community: People with faith and religion, issues they face and their specific needs”
• Jen Sainsbury in the stream Creating Change: Politics, Evidence and Practices for the presentation “Talking straight – finding new ways to challenge homophobia and heterosexism in Australian schools” (Download the presentation here)
• Demetry Apostle in the stream Social Inclusion, Exclusion and Resilience: A Social View of Health for the workshop “Are my culture and religion more important than my sexuality?': Synergies and tensions between ethnic, religious and sexual identities”
• Aram Hosie in the stream Sex and Gender Diversity: Differences within Diversity for the workshop “Moving beyond talking”

Participants voted on their favourite presentation in each theme as part of the conference evaluation. It was a close competition and we'd like to make particular mention of the following 3 presentations, which only missed out in their respective stream by a single vote:

• Sally Goldner, “How the BGILT Community Can Work Together”
• Mary Heath, "Shiny Happy Same-Sex Attracted Woman Seeking Same': The Role of Community in - Bisexual and Lesbian Women's Wellbeing"
• Catherine Barrett, Sue Kentlyn, Jude Comfort, Russell Westacott, Jo Harrison, Peter Dickson, Sally Goldner, Meg Gulbin, “Val’s Café: A forum to promote the health and wellbeing of older gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people”

Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all presenters (and participants) for making the 2010 Health in Difference National LGBTI Health Conference an outstanding success.

For more information about the conference, please refer to the links at the top of this page.