Growing Up Queer in Australia

Queer is a lens through which the world can be viewed differently Compiled by celebrated author and journalist Benjamin Law Growing Up Queer in Australia assembles voices from across the spectrum of LGBTIQA+ identity. Spanning diverse places eras genders ethnicities and experiences these are the stories of growing up queer in Australia. For better or worse sooner or later life conspires to reveal you to yourself and this is growing up. I marked the day in my adolescent diary with a single blank page. The mantle of queer migrant compelled me to keep going - to go further. I never came out to my parents I felt I owed them no explanation. I was thirty-eight and figured it was time to come out to her. All I heard from the pulpit were grim hints. No amount of YouTube videos and queer think pieces prepared me for this moment. I became acutely aware of the parts of myself that were unpalatable to queers who grew up in the city. My queerness was born in a hot dry land that was never ceded. Even now I sometimes think that I dont know my own desire.