Health & health care for lesbian, bisexual and same sex attracted women

Sexual Orientation & Coming Out

Sexual orientation is an over-arching term that includes many aspects of a persons self including attraction (who a person is sexually attracted to), sexual behaviour (who a person has sex with), and sexual identity (which label and/or community a person identifies with, be that lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, heterosexual or other labels). All variations of sexual orientation are normal and should not to be regarded as forms of illness, pathology or immorality.
This section will briefly discuss the process of awareness of sexual orientations that involve same sex attraction, same sex attracted youth and same sex relationships.

• Same sex attraction, identity and coming out
• Adolescence
• Healthy same sex relationships
  

Same sex attraction, identity and coming out

Many people have a slowly growing awareness of their same sex attractions. This often occurs during adolescence, however can occur at any age. Identifying as lesbian or bisexual may or may not follow. Attraction, behaviour and identity may completely overlap for some women, for example when a woman is attracted to women, has sex exclusively with women and identifies as lesbian or gay. However, for many women, these dimensions do not completely overlap, for example when a woman is attracted to women only, has a male sexual partner and identifies as heterosexual. Another woman may be attracted to both women and men, have only female sexual partners and identify as bisexual. This can change over time for different women.

Knowing when, where and how to come out as same sex attracted woman is important. Some women find coming out easy and others need support and help to deal with negative attitudes. It can be very useful to discuss these issues with a sensitive health care provider. This is discussed further in the Health Care section.

Helpful books:

Shale, E (editor). Inside Out: and Australian collection of coming out stories. Bookman Press, Melbourne, 1999.

Speller, E (editor). Coming home. Interviews with women who came out after 40. Women’s Health in the South East, Frankston, 2005.
Email: whise@vicnet.net.au

Resources and groups:

Lesbian Open House
An informal discussion and support group for women of any age.
Meet at 14 Smith St, Collingwood, every 1st and 3rd Thursday
Phone: 0409 255 775

Adolescence

All young people develop a sense of themselves as sexual beings. Often this sense is clearly heterosexual, with sexual attraction to the opposite sex. However for up to 10% of young people their attraction may be to people of the same sex or either sex. This can be a very confusing time, particularly as social messages frequently imply that anything other than heterosexuality is abnormal or wrong.

Same sex attracted young people can fear the implications of their growing awareness. In particular they can avoid revealing their same sex attraction to family or friends due to fears of negative reactions such as rejection and even hatred. These fears are realistic in some circumstances as same sex attracted young people in Australia are found to have suffered more emotional and physical abuse with regard to their sexual orientation than their heterosexual peers. Alternatively, some same sex attracted young people find that their fears are ungrounded as reactions from family and friends can be very positive and supporting. There are an increasing number of high schools in which homophobic bullying is not tolerated and anti-homophobia programs are occurring. There are also a large number of same sex attracted youth groups run by local councils that provide opportunities for support and guidance.

Helpful books:

Shale, E (editor). Inside Out: and Australian collection of coming out stories. Bookman Press, Melbourne, 1999.

Eltham Gay Group. Becoming myself. Stories of same sex attracted young people. Nillumbik Community Health Service, Eltham, 2005.
Email: egg@nchs.org.au

Pride and Diversity Project. My friend is gay, a peer group support resource. Monash Youth and Family Services, Glen Waverley, 2005
Email: yrcr@monash.vic.gov.au

Resources and groups:

Outreach
An Australian site for SSAY www.also.org.au/outreach

The Alsorts Directory
A comprehensive list of services and contacts for SSAY
www.also.org.au/alsorts
ALSORTS [pdf]

Minus 18
Alcohol and drug free events for SSAY less than 18 yrs old
www.minus18.org

Lesbian Open House
An informal discussion and support group for women of any age.
Meet at 14 Smith St, Collingwood, every 1st and 3rd Thursday
Phone: 0409 255 775

Y-Glam
Y-GLAM is a performing arts project for same sex attracted and transgender young people between the ages of 14-25. Rehearsals occur weekly in the Brunswick area, Melbourne. It is run by the Moreland City Council.
21 Victoria St, Coburg, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9355 9920
http://www.mchs.org.au/services/cocare.html

Services:

SSAFE Same sex attracted friendly environments
This is a website operated by Family Planning Victoria that provides a regularly updated list of same sex attracted youth services around the state.
http://www.ssafeschools.org.au/referral.cfm

The Action Centre
A free young people’s health service, run by Family Planning Victoria.
277 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Phone: 1800 013 952

Frontyard Youth Support Services
Counselling, housing, support services for people aged 15 to 25 in Parkville.
Phone: 03 9611 2411, 1800 800 531
www.frontyard.org

Healthy same sex relationships

Many women find happy and fulfilling same sex relationships. Gaining recognition of the importance of your relationship from family and friends can be helpful to support you and your partner. It is also important during difficult times or after separation, as some lesbians and bisexual women find that their stress at these times is not acknowledged.

Support:

Drummond Street Relationship Centre
Provides counselling for individuals, couples and families. A lesbian and gay focus is being developed by the centre
195 Drummond St, Carlton,
03 9663 6733
www.drummondstreet.com.au