How do you help GLBT Australians understand landmark legal reforms affecting their lives? How else but with a clutch of celebrities and a rack of designer T-shirts...

Thirty years ago, laws affecting gay and lesbian Australians were nothing to celebrate.

Homosexuality was a criminal offence, gay and lesbian relationships had no legal status and discrimination was an entrenched part of the legal landscape.

Thankfully, times changed.

Homosexuality was eventually decriminalised throughout Australia and gay men and lesbians started receiving some basic forms of relationship recognition.

However, right up until last year, a raft of national laws still discriminated against same-sex couples in areas such as employee entitlements, privacy rights, tax, superannuation, child support and insurance.

The change came in July 2009 when the Federal Government amended 85 pieces of Commonwealth legislation which discriminated against same-sex couples.

It was an incredible outcome that came after years of moving protests and tireless lobbying from gay and lesbian activists.

However, helping the GLBT community understand the complexities of the legal reforms was quickly identified as an issue that needed to be addressed.

After all, what’s the point in having new rights and responsibilities if you don’t know what they actually are or how they will affect you?

That’s the purpose of Wear It With Pride, a national campaign funded by the Federal Government that aims to increase awareness and understanding of the law reforms among members of
Australia’s GLBT community.

Launched on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in February, the campaign is based around a series of 85 designer T-shirts, with each shirt linked to one of the 85 historic reforms.

A range of celebrities and GLBT community personalities appear in the campaign, each promoting a particular shirt/reform and then encouraging people to visit the Wear It With Pride website (www.wearitwithpride.com.au) to find out which shirts/reforms ‘fit’ their individual circumstances.

Some of the famous folk who’ve donated their time either as designers or ambassadors include singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte, TV personalities Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Ruby Rose, Kylie Gillies and Richard Reid, designers Charlie Brown, Reg Mombassa and Henry Roth, entertainer Todd McKenney, former Australian Medical Association President Prof. Kerryn Phelps, renowned Indigenous arts practitioner Noel Tovey, The Veronicas’ Jess and Lisa Origliasso and Air Commodore Tracy Smart, the highest-ranking ‘out’ lesbian in the Australian Defence Force.

In addition to the website and a national advertising schedule, the campaign also involves a series of information seminars delivered in cities and key regional centres across Australia.

Created by leading advertising agency M&C Saatchi – which donated a significant amount of its time and expenses – the project was produced by ACON on behalf of the National LGBT Health Alliance.

ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill says he hopes the campaign will inspire GLBT community members to find out more about the new laws.

“Despite the continuing debate around same-sex marriage and adoption, these new laws represent an important milestone for human rights in this country, an achievement of which we can all be proud,” he says.

“They also mean a range of new and amended entitlements for same-sex couples, so I encourage all GLBT community members to visit the campaign website or to contact their local ACON office for more information about the impact these new laws will have on their lives.”

Help Out

You can now buy the T-shirts online, wear them with pride and become a human billboard for the campaign. For all the details go to www.wearitwithpride.com.au