Meredith Turnbull

Director, GetUp!

Meredith Turnbull may not be a name that’s instantly recognisable, but the institution that she now leads is. As former executive officer of Sydney based youth advocacy organisation Twenty10 and current director of operations for grassroots community organisation GetUp!, Turnbull’s influence is undisputed, and definitely growing.

“I thank my mother every day for giving birth to me the way I am,” says Meredith of her sexuality. “Being gay has given me such a unique perspective on what it’s like to be discriminated against. What I like about my job, is that the world isn’t really made for us, and I get to shake things up.”

She’s not alone in her quest to make the country a better place. With a membership of just under 300,000 nationwide – more than all of the Australian political parties combined - GetUp! is using the power of the internet to champion a range of social justice issues, something Meredith is very familiar with, given her experience working with at risk gay and transgender youth.

Meredith became involved with the gay community back in 1996 when she helped coordinate Western Australia’s Pride Festival. Her recent appointment to GetUp! is the first time her job hasn’t directly involved the gay community.

Meredith has received numerous awards recognising her contributions to gay, bi and transgender youth and social justice in Australia, but this is the first award to come directly from the gay community and she’s “absolutely blown away.” Meredith says her inclusion on the Same Same 25 is wonderful recognition, and she sees her promotion to a broader social justice role with GetUp! as an affirmation as to the seriousness and importance of her past work with youth.

Canvassing a wide-range of social justice issues in her new role at GetUp!, Meredith says she draws a lot from her days at Twenty10. Although GetUp! Is, admittedly, a much larger scale, a lot of the issues she deals with on a day to day basis are important to gay Australians, “and there’s quite a few of us in the office,” she laughs.

GetUp’s current campaign against proposed internet censorship laws is just of the projects that Meredith believes will have positive flow on effects. She believes that we need to empower and educate younger members of our community, and that the internet is an integral part of that process. “If these laws come in, how will kids access the information they need to? Important information you need when coming-out could be censored, and children with difficult home environments have nowhere to turn. Increasingly the internet is the first place youth turn.” With over 30,000 signatures against internet censorship amassed so far, it looks like Meredith and GetUp! are set to challenge the threat.

While Meredith isn’t directly involved with Twenty10 campaigns anymore, the Q&A Leadership Program is one thing she would like to take to a national level, rather than just Sydney. “It was another chance to have young gay, bi and transgender Australian’s empower themselves. The program was a huge success when it was launched last year.”

If there’s one thing Meredith misses most about Twenty10, it’s the kids themselves. “I miss the face to face contact and the immediacy of the changes you’re making... but you can’t really get rid of me, I still pop in, I’m still involved.”

By Joel Bryant