The National LGBTIQ+ Future Priorities Survey 2018 aimed to identify issues that are important to the LGBTIQ+ community, and their allies, that community groups and leaders could work on since having achieved marriage equality reforms.
The full report is available here
Of the number of individuals eligible to participate in the survey (LGBTIQ+ person or ally, 18+ years, and Australian citizen or permanent resident), 2,662 (97.3%) went on to start the future priority questions. Of this number 2,323 completed the survey in full, resulting in an 87.3% completion rate (see Demographics for details).
1. Participants were first asked to rate the level of priority they gave a number of community and policy strategies within various domains. They were then asked to rank their high priority strategies in the order of which to address sooner. This allowed us to identify the most pressing issues within a pool of strategies already identified as being important. The following were ranked No: 1 within each domain. Where results differed between groups of participants, they are noted below. For the full list of strategies and ranks, refer to ‘Future Priorities’ within the report.
Law Reforms
- A national ban on LGBTIQ+ “conversion” or “reparative” therapies (LGBTIQ+ participants)
- Equal rights and protections for all families in federal law including LGBTIQ+ people and their children (non-LGBTIQ+ participants)
Funding Programs
- Funding programs aimed at improving LGBTIQ+ safety and inclusion in schools
Liaison with Federal Government Strategies
- Establishing LGBTIQ+ policy groups in federal government agencies such as health, education, the federal police, justice, and the Prime Minister’s department
Community Representation Strategies
- Greater funding for existing LGBTIQ+ advocacy, policy, and service organisations
Improving Rights and Conditions for Transgender/Intersex/Gender Non-Binary People
(Note: The top two items below are given equal ranking overall and are based on trans-gender, intersex and gender non-binary participants’ responses (with the latter category overlapping the former categories).
- Medicare funding for gender transition (1st priority for transgender participants)
- Legislative protection for intersex people against unnecessary medical procedures and procedures without their informed consent (1st priority for intersex and gender non-binary participants).
Interestingly, for the sample in general, a national public education strategy in relation to transgender, intersex and gender non-binary issues was ranked 2nd, whereas this was less pressing an issue (ranked 4th or 5th) for those who identified as transgender, intersex and/or gender non-binary (i.e., those most likely to be directly affected).
Federal Government LGBTIQ+ strategies
- Suicide and mental health strategy
Federal Government Policy Initiatives
- Reforming policies and practices for assessing refugees seeking asylum on the basis of anti-LGBTIQ+ persecution
2. On a separate topic, participants were asked to select their preferences for LGBTIQ+ representational methods. The majority selected:
- An organisation structure that guarantees the interests of smaller population groups (e.g. transgender, intersex, Indigenous and CALD, regional and rural, small states and territories) are not overridden by larger groups.
3. For the last question, which was on the best way to achieve a Human Rights Charter, most participants selected “Human rights entrenched in the Constitution” over “Human rights enacted by legislation”.
Detailed responses to the Future Priorities Survey 2018 questions, including demographic items, are available here.