This week's trail definitely made us all reflect on the ways that LGBTQI+ people experience Melbourne. It's not until you spend a day traipsing through the CBD, rifling through bookshops and asking endless questions to employees that you truly understand how underrepresented the community is around the city. We generally didn't have much luck in the scavenger hunt; even trying to find the most progressive and liberal organisations we could didn't help with finding gender neutral bathrooms or all-encompassing ads and language. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be actually needing these things in a real life situation, especially the bathrooms.
However, it was so fantastic to see the amount of luck we had finding children's books that include positive queer representation. One mainstream bookstore we visited didn't have anything that we could find, but an independent bookstore in emporium had an extensive and diverse collection. The person working there showed us numerous books including one striving to normalise all kinds of families, one including LGBT+ icons such as Frida Kahlo, and another that included a gay couple without any attention drawn to their sexuality. It warmed all of our hearts to see that children are being given the opportunity to learn about LGBTQI+ topics in so many different and positive ways, which is something that would not have happened even 20 years ago. The only thing that could be better is if some of the major booksellers would include some queer picture books in their range.
The survey results were generally quite similar across the board. We tried to approach people from all ages and demographics, and everyone who took the survey was very respectful. Most people agreed that there should be more action taken to include LGBTQI+ people in society and the media, however people tended to be divided on whether equality is already present for the community. There was only one person that strongly disagreed with all of the questions relating to LGBT+ activism, but everyone else was very supportive of the cause.
