Interesting items include It Gets Better, It’s Time, the man who called out “I’m free!” and the individuals who put the ‘I’ in our LGBTI communities…

Intersex

It’s easy to think that there are only two types of people – ‘male’ and ‘female’. But the assignation of our gender happens at an early stage of pregnancy, and various anomalies can occur in the process. Some people may have features typical of male and female, or may not be fully male or female, or may be neither male or female.

At birth, a doctor who recognises that the baby has indeterminate gender consults with the parents and often a decision is made to raise the child as male or female. Sometimes surgeries may occur to ‘normalise’ the genitals. In recent generations, this has in effect hidden the real number of intersex people there are in the world (thought to be around 1% of all live births, but research is continuing), and also led to much soul-searching during puberty and beyond, as the intersex individual grows up and comes to terms with their identity anew.

But today there’s an awakening happening, as society begins to deal better with a blurring of traditional thoughts about gender. The idea of an intersex person undergoing a ‘normalisation’ process as either gender – and facing surgery – is becoming increasingly controversial. Like with people who are gay or lesbian, doctors or psychologists shouldn’t treat being intersex like having an ‘illness’ which needs to be cured, but accept that their differences are part of humanity’s natural spectrum.

Last year Melbourne elected Tony Briffa, Australia’s first intersex Mayor, and in January this year the ABC ran a fascinating documentary about an intersex woman’s journey to find out more about her past.

Below, Gina Wilson of Intersex Australia tells her story, and you can find out more about being intersex in Australia here.

It Gets Better

It Gets Better is an internet-based project which begun in the United States by Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller in September of 2010 as a response to the highly-publicised suicide of Billy Lucas and a number of other teenagers who were bullied for being gay.

Savage wrote about the founding of the project, “I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.”

The goal was to improve self-esteem and prevent suicide by having gay adults convey the message that these teens’ lives would eventually improve.

In just under two weeks the YouTube channel reached the 650 video limit, leading to the campaign getting organised on its own website. It now includes more then 30,000 entries from people of all ages, sexual orientations and numerous celebrities, right up to US President Barack Obama.

To this day the It Gets Better campaign continues to inspire young LGBTIQ young people all over the world, and of course here in Australia, where you’re invited to be part of it yourself.

See the It Gets Better website here and its Australian sister site here.

Insertive

Insertion means getting into someone else. Insertive sexual activities are: fucking, fellatio, fisting and fingering – ‘the four Fs’ – plus any kind of sex practice where penetration happens.

Use plenty of lube when fucking for an easy ride in. Be aware of his body language and remember that hard and fast isn’t always best. Fucking may feel great for you but you also need to pay attention to what your partner is feeling. Please play it safe for his sake and yours. Barebacking, or anal sex without a condom, is the highest risk activity for getting HIV. It can be far more risky for the bottom, but there are risks for the top also as HIV can be present in his arse.

Provided they haven’t expired and are in good working condition, condoms are extremely effective for stopping HIV, so slip it on.

Insertion isn’t just fucking; it’s also sucking (or fellatio). Getting sucked, and indeed sucking, can be one of the most pleasurable things you can do to each other, so check each other’s motions, their rhythms, lots of tongue and be careful of teeth (unless of course that’s what’s been asked for!).

Sucking is at low risk for HIV, but remember, it can cause bacterial STIs such as gonorrhoea and chlamydia. Fisting is also low risk for HIV, provided you have cleaned your hands, cut your nails, and there are no sores on your hands, but can also be prevalent to STIs. Shigella and other gut infections get passed on when small amounts of infected shit get into the mouth from fingers, rimming, fucking, scat or handling used dildos: so if any hard-core fist-fucking is going on, it’s best to wear a latex glove, gents!

It’s Time

6.5 million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong! Launched last year, this 2-minute ad has rarely been seen on TV but has been shared across social networks and blogs thousands of times, winning hearts and changing minds across the globe.

It’s the greatest marriage equality video ever made. And as our Parliament gets set to vote on changing our Marriage Act, getting the message out is more important than ever.

And not forgetting…

John Inman

“I’m free!!”

Back in the 1970s, John Inman’s legendary character Mr. Humphries was gay before it was even legal, and for better or worse was the only flamboyantly and obviously homosexual character regularly on TV– so for many of us was the only ‘out’ gay man we ever saw when growing up.

Luckily nowadays we have a greater choice of role models, but at least having such an outrageous character accepted by the Grace Brothers’ shop crew showed an audience of up to 22 million Brits each week – and millions more across the world – how much wicked fun having a gay friend could be.

Are You Being Served? finished in 1985, and Inman continued to make people laugh regularly on the high-camp British panto scene right up until his death in 2007, two years after he and his male partner of 35 years had tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony.

This page was co-written by Chad St. James, Matt Akersten and the team at ACON.