17c起草社区

THE football oval was an open and comfortable environment for Anna Brown to begin exploring her queer identity during university.

Playing for the Victorian Women鈥檚 Football League, some of her comrades on the field would have boyfriends when they joined the team and girlfriends when they left.

[showads聽ad=MREC]鈥淚 was a late bloomer, I guess,鈥� she said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty incredible environment, women鈥檚 football, in the sense that you have a safe space to explore queer sexuality and masculinity.

鈥淭here were plenty of lesbian women within the football community, so it became a place to explore those feelings.鈥�

In the years since, Brown has worked tirelessly to improve the rights of LGBTI people across the country. She is currently the co-convener of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and the Director of Strategic Litigation at the Human Rights Law Centre.

Her work has helped advance marriage equality, recognise sex and gender diversity, and secure federal discrimination protections. As a result, , and just last month .

When she entered her first same-sex relationship she told her dad, who was perfectly accepting.

鈥淚 told him I was seeing someone, and that it happened to be a girl,鈥� she said.

鈥淗e just said 鈥榦h okay鈥�, and there was no question in my mind that he wouldn鈥檛 be okay with it.鈥�

Brown鈥檚 twin Robyn then became her inside line to the rest of her family, as she outsourced the rest of the conversations to her sister.

鈥淚t meant they could ask all the questions they might have wanted to ask me but were too worried about saying the wrong thing,鈥� Brown recalled.

鈥淚t also meant I didn鈥檛 have to have embarrassing conversations about my sex life 鈥� not something I regularly discussed with members of the family.鈥�

This openness wasn鈥檛 mirrored in Brown鈥檚 professional life at the time, though. During her first year as a law graduate, she kept the fact that she was in a same-sex relationship hidden, an experience she later discovered was shared by a number of her peers.

鈥淭he world has changed for the better since then but at the time we all thought it was too career-limiting, socially unacceptable, or just plain awkward to talk about,鈥� she said.

鈥淎s a young female lawyer you鈥檙e already dealing with enough entrenched sexism and casual sexual harassment in the legal profession that you want to avoid making things more difficult for yourself.

鈥淚 still feel bad about what that meant for my girlfriend at the time… She didn鈥檛 come to my admission ceremony because I asked her not to.鈥�

A turning point for Brown was when she moved to Sydney to work for a judge. She admitted that it had been awful hiding that part of her identity at work in Melbourne, and being able to make a break with who she had been in 鈥淎ustralia鈥檚 gayest city鈥� was perfect.

鈥淥xford St felt like a magical fairyland and I still remember going out with friends, and our jaws dropping seeing the queues of women outside the lesbian nights at clubs,鈥� she said.

鈥淚鈥檇 never seen anything like it.

鈥淪ydney just felt like it was gay with a capital G, and I started to take more of an interest in the LGBTIQ community more broadly.

鈥淚 remember discovering the 17c起草社区 and becoming interested in reading about the community and law reform developments.鈥�

Brown said she has had relationships with both men and women, and has often not felt the need to put a label on her sexuality.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 make a big deal out of it when I told my family,鈥� she said.

鈥淚t was just a matter of letting people know that the person I was seeing happened to be a woman鈥� I didn鈥檛 feel the need to justify myself.

鈥淟abels feel limiting when describing something as complex and nuanced as human sexuality, although I obviously appreciate the need to define population groups for research and policy-making purposes,鈥� she added.

鈥淏ut I do really enjoy the feeling of being part of the broader LGBTI community, and our movement for equality.

鈥淚 love that we can work across these communities and support one another as allies.鈥�

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**This article was first published in the November聽edition of the 17c起草社区, which is . To obtain a physical copy, to find out where you can grab one in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and select regional/coastal areas.

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