On this page, we talk about different types of support for your sexuality.

On this page:

• Why you might want or need support
• Support through counselling
• Support from people who are like you
• Example story

Your sexuality and the relationships you have can be exciting parts of your life.

But you might experience discrimination because of your sexuality.

People might treat you unfairly because of more than one thing about who you are.

For example because of:

• your sexuality
• and
• your disability.

You can get support if:

• you are unhappy
• people are treating you unfairly
• you want to get the most out of life.

You can get support through counselling.

When you get counselling, you can explore:

• different parts of yourself
• your experiences.

For example, you can explore your:

• sexuality
• gender.

  Your gender is what you feel and understand about who you are as a person.

  You might think of yourself as a man or woman or something different.

  You can choose the words that are right for you.

You can also explore problems in your life.

For example:

• feeling like it is hard for you to communicate
• feeling close to other people
• taking part in sexual activities
• your relationships.

There are lots of different types of counselling.

You can find out more on our page about counselling.

You can get support from people who:

• are like you
• have had similar experiences to you.

We call this ‘peer support’.

For example, they might:

• be a person with disability
• have the same sexuality as you.

People who can give you peer support might not be experts at giving support.

But they have a lot of life experience that can help you.

Peer support can help you feel like people understand:

• you
• what you are experiencing.

It can help you feel:

• safe
• like people respect you.

Peer support can be helpful.

But you should have other types of support in your life as well.

For example:

• counselling
• friends and family.

QLife supports LGBTQIA+ people and their families.

They can support you to talk about things like:

• sexuality
• gender
• feelings
• relationships.

You can find out more on the QLife website.

You can call them between 3:00 pm and 10:30 pm.

1800 184 527

You can also call a helpline to find peer support.

Helplines are phone numbers that will connect you to people who:

• care about what you are going through
• can give you good advice.

We have a list of helplines on our website.

You can find out more on our page about helplines.

You can also use the internet to search for the type of peer support you want in your area.

We wrote a story to show an example of finding support for your sexuality.

The story we wrote is about a person called Charlie.

The story and the people in it are not real.

We made them up to explain finding support for your sexuality.

Charlie always thought she was only attracted to men.

She did not think about her sexuality very much.

When Charlie went to university, she:

• met new people
• learned about LGBTQIA+ people.

Charlie starts to think she might be bisexual.

If someone is bisexual, they are attracted to:

• men
• women.

They can also be attracted to people of other genders.

She is worried about:

• what her friends and family will think
• if she will experience discrimination.

Charlie decides to get counselling with someone who is an expert in LGBTQIA+ issues.

In counselling, Charlie explores what she is feeling.

Charlie also starts going to meetings with other LGBTQIA+ people.

She makes new friends who have had experiences like hers.

Charlie feels better after getting this support.

She decides to tell the other people in her life that she is bisexual.