Health Sciences

Welcome to the SSAY website. This website is for same sex attracted and transgender young people, your friends and families and for people who work with you in schools and in the community. The website is the initiative of researchers at The Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society (ARCSHS), at La Trobe University. It is funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. We want to keep you up to date with our current research and the ways that we are using the research to bring about change, particularly to reduce homophobia. This might be in the form of reports, journal articles, booklets, posters, briefings and conferences many of which can be downloaded from this website.

The aim of this project is to map a way forward -'beyond homophobia'- for those who work with same sex attracted and transgender young people in Victoria. This project looks at what has happened over the last 30 years in gay and lesbian youth cultures and service delivery. It also looks at what can be done in the future to make schools and other services more inclusive. For more information, including how to get involved, see the project webpage.

If you live in Victoria, are aged between 16 - 21 years, are same sex attracted and/or transgender and interested in taking part in this research, we want to hear from you soon. Over the years we have carried out a lot of research with same sex attracted young people but mostly it has been in 'one off' encounters and we have found that we really do not know enough about what happened next. In this project we want to follow 30 same sex attracted young people over two years, having time in person or on the phone each six months. If you would like to be involved see the The project page

This report looks at the health impacts of belonging to a support group f24 April, 2008t a survey about their health and well being at Time 1 when they were new to the group and Time 2 four months later. Belonging to a group was associated with improved feelings about sexuality and life itself. Other benefits are also documented in this report.

The message of this booklet is 'Homophobia - you don't have to wear it'. Over the last 10 years, 1000s of same sex attracted young people have written to us about damaging beliefs about homosexuality and how they have outsmarted those beliefs. The booklet looks at the beliefs, where they come from, ways to outsmart them and useful links. The POSH booklet can be downloaded here or ring Mel at ARCSHS on 92855382 or m.hales@latrobe.edu.au We'd love feedback on the booklet - Please tell us what you think of it.