We Are Family: Supporting LGBTIQA+ Family Members

Sage (they/them) is a Queer, Non Binary, Person of Colour. Sage is an LGBTIQA+ advocate passionate about social equity and inclusion; and intersectional representation. 

Sage's experience extends across the sector having led several initiatives and programs at Minus18 and Equality Australia supporting the LGBTIQA+ community across Australia. They recently co-founded Speak, a not for profit organisation focused on creating safe spaces for LGBTIQA+ people in regional Victoria.

Ro Allen is an experienced and longstanding advocate for LGBTIQ Victorians and has held leadership positions in the community and government sectors.

Ro has been a member of three Victorian Government LGBTI ministerial advisory groups and chaired the ministerial advisory committee on LGBTI Health and Wellbeing between 2007 and 2009.

Ro is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and a former Chair of the Adult, Community and Further Education Board, the Victorian Skills Commission, the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVIC), and the Hume Regional Development Australia Committee.

As founding CEO of UnitingCare Cutting Edge, Ro established Victoria’s first rural support group for young LGBTI people, giving Ro a deep understanding of the issues faced in rural and regional areas.

Tracey Gaudry is the CEO of Respect Victoria, an organisation dedicated to the primary prevention of all forms of family violence and violence against women. Tracey has held leadership roles in corporate, government, community and for-purpose organisations for more than 20 years and has a track record in realising positive social and community change with a focus on ethics and integrity, inclusion, diversity and gender equality.

A former professional cyclist and dual Olympian, Tracey is a board director and chair of the Women’s Commission of the world governing body for the sport of cycling, where she has been instrumental in driving global reform in governance, advocacy, grassroots development and gender, economic and cultural diversity. She is a former CEO of the Amy Gillett Foundation and the Hawthorn Football Club.

Karen has 30 years experience in developing, managing and delivering a range of public health evidenced based programs and services to communities, families, parents, young people and children. Her work has involved a range of sectors including health (primary and mental health) and welfare, family violence, education and employment, and justice sectors within government and community based organisations. 

She is a campaigner for social justice and the human rights and dignity for all Australian’s and the recognition of all families, this is especially demonstrated in her commitment to Stepfamilies, Refugee and Humanitarian Entrants and their families and the LGBTIQ+ communities and their families.

Her knowledge base, employment experience and contribution spans the public health spectrum she is a well-regarded champion of research and evaluation to ensure that organisations see themselves as both evidence users but also builders. This includes contributing to the knowledge base of health and wellbeing needs of our most vulnerable and excluded groups in the community.

Sally Rugg is the executive director at Change.org. She was a campaign director with GetUp and worked at the forefront of Australia's marriage equality campaign. Her first book, How Powerful We Are (Hachette, 2019), is about dirty politics, sophisticated digital campaigning and how Australia finally said 'yes' to love.

Joe is a longstanding LGBTIQA+ activist and CEO of Switchboard Victoria. Switchboard runs Australia’s only LGBTIQA+ dedicated family violence prevention helpline, the Rainbow Door. Joe believes in grass roots solutions to systemic issues and draws upon LGBTIQA+ history and the wisdom of LGBTIQA+ elders to guide their work. In 2020, Joe was honoured as one of the 50 Outstanding LGBTI+ Leaders in Australia. Joe proudly identifies as trans non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them. Joe works and lives on the lands of the Kulin Nation in Narrm (Melbourne) Victoria.