I have lived as a black gay man for 50 years in America. This is the fearmongering that still exists. The governor of Arkansas threatened to de-fund PBS in Arkansas if they ran the episode, because it’s perverted, it’s the gay agenda, and I’m gonna come into their home and molest their children. When they put up a picture of me standing on the steps, there was a backlash from the south. Sesame Street asked me to come on in the Christian Siriano dress, and they wrote a special song about friendship with me and a penguin.
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All that stuff is of no consequence to me, because I’m going to continue to do me. You can say whatever you want, you can tweet whatever you want, you can write in my comments. That doesn’t happen when you’re 20 – I had to live long enough. I give zero fucks about what anybody thinks that I’m doing. I don’t care what you think about me because I’m wearing a dress to the Oscars. What you’re seeing in the past two years is the result of me making that choice, all those years ago. That was what motivated me to do things differently. Nobody wanted to see me do anything but be the fairy clown. When I asked for what I wanted, I was dismissed. In the late 90s, I made the decision that that was no longer acceptable for me, and the work dried up.
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So I became a clown I became the flamboyant queen. This was the late 1980s, early 1990s, and nobody knew where to put that kind of energy in a mainstream way. "We will continue to traumatise young LGBTI people in the community with the negative discourse.When I started out in this business, I came to New York City and played my trump card, which was my singing voice. "When the government first floated the idea of a vote, the LGBTI community fought back and said: 'No we can't go ahead with this plebiscite because the conversation can get very, very dangerous'. "It just keeps telling them that you don't matter and you are not equal. "It is one of the most insidious forms of abuse and hetero-sexism and keeps them in the closet, which is not a safe place to be," Mr Bonson said. He believed that when discussing the lives of the people at the centre of debate, politicians were placing a lower value on LGBTI people - based on who they fall in love with. Mr Bonson said he became increasingly concerned every time the political debate re-emerged. However conservative MPs who oppose same-sex marriage say the Coalition must maintain its policy for a national plebiscite. The debate around same-sex marriage emerged again this week after WA Liberal Senator Dean Smith, who is openly gay, announced his plan to push the Liberal party to allow a conscience vote on the issue. "There was nowhere for me to turn to and there was nothing positive reflected in our society that it was OK to be who I was - I know that this is still the case." "I knew from my early teens that I was different because the world I was living in and growing up in wasn't reflecting someone like me," he said. Mr Bonson said he could not find any positive LGBTI role models after he came out to his family and friends at the age of 21. Transgender people aged 18 and over are nearly 11 times more likely to attempt suicide. The National LGBTI Alliance claims that LGBTI people are more likely to attempt suicide in their lifetime compared to the Australian general population - and those aged 16 to 27 are five times more at risk of taking their lives. Suicide was the leading cause of death for Indigenous people between 15 and 34 years of age in the years 2011 to 2015, according to ABS statistics. He said those most at risk of suicide were black, gay, and young.ĭameyon Bonson is trying to reach out to the Indigenous LGBTI community.
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While there is no research into the number of Indigenous LGBTI people who suicide, Mr Bonson said people only had to look at the high rates of suicide in both communities and consider how those who were black and gay experienced both racism and homophobia. "We don't want to see more of our kids, our sons, our daughters, our brothers, our sisters, our nieces, our nephews, our granddaughters and our grandsons killing themselves because we tell them that they don't matter," he said. Mr Bonson said the ongoing political to-and-fro about same sex marriage sent the LGBTI community the message that they did not deserve equality and the right to marry the person they loved. The 43-year-old said there was little support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex, and their experiences were largely ignored in the public debate. Dameyon Bonson formed 'Black Rainbow' in 2013, the first nation-wide support suicide prevention and mental health support service for Indigenous LGBTI people.