Jemma’s Story

Content warning: homophobia, religious discrimination

As someone who went to a Catholic school, and realised throughout that schooling time that I was queer, there were a few instances that really stood out to me of how people treated LGBTQIA+ people and youth. I remember distinctly one of my friends, who was a queer AMAB person, being harassed online by several of the 'popular' girls- they posted photos with one of them wearing a sash with the F-Slur on it, and when my friend said 'hey that's not right', they responded 'yeah it would look better on you.'. Another notable moment was in 2017, right when I first started at high school, was when the same-sex marriage plebiscite was happening. Not only did our school make us all take home pamphlets saying 'vote no', I also had a teacher tell one of our classes for a solid 5 minutes why same-sex marriage was wrong and immoral. It definitely left a mark and I probably would have had a different journey with my sexuality if I hadn’t experienced it.