So you may have noticed that this blog has been fairly quiet the past two months. There are a few reasons for that. The first is that I started a new job at the beginning of November. It is as a policy and media officer for a community sector organisation. I haven’t worked in that sector before, nor have I worked as directly with the media, so I thought it might be useful to concentrate on that job until I got a better handle on what is involved.

Second, I have been getting more involved in the NSW Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL). In early December I was elected to the committee of management, and am now the chairperson of the Anti-Discrimination Working Group. This is obviously taking up some of my time, particularly in figuring out how things operate, but it also means that some of what I write is now on behalf of the Lobby, and not myself.

That includes a submission I drafted in late October to the consultation process on the National LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Strategy (as an aside, the final strategy was released on 20 December – congratulations and thanks to Minister Mark Butler and all who have been involved in the many years of lobbying for this important document). The submission has not been published at this stage, and whether it is put on the web is a matter for the GLRL.

But, now that I am settled at work, and have some more time on my hands, I will resume writing more regularly – and hopefully publishing something every two or three weeks. Over the next month, I will also ‘clear the decks’ of some other things which I have written this year, including putting up my submission to the Senate Marriage Inquiry (which was not published by the Committee), my submission to the Senate Anti-Discrimination Inquiry (which will hopefully be published by the Committee as well) and following up my letter to Minister Chris Bowen on LGBTI asylum seekers – which sadly he has not yet responded to. I hope to write a bit more on issues of secularism and the separation of church and state in the new year as well.

Finally, I should reiterate that what I write here is purely personal in nature – I am not writing on behalf of my community sector organisation, nor is anything included here written on behalf of, or speaking for, the GLRL. These are my own thoughts, and this is my own voice.