Growing Up Queer in Australia
Edited by Benjamin Law
Black Inc., 2019
In 2008, the anthology series Growing Up in Australia began with Growing Up Asian in Australia, edited by Alice Pung. Since then, Black Inc. Books has published Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Growing Up Muslim in Australia, Growing Up African in Australia and, in 2019, Growing Up Queer in Australia. In his introduction, editor Benjamin Law explains the use of the word Queer in the title, and admits, “there is a sting associated with the word”. Nevertheless, he encourages the reclamation of queerness, particularly as “parts of the gay and lesbian community are becoming more conservative, assimilationist and palatable”.
The anthology contains short pieces of memoir from many notable queer Australians from a variety of sexual identities and ages, but the diversity is unified by the sense, as Holly Throsby writes, that although “there is still a long way to go, especially for our young ones . . . I have seen so much change in my short life – in others, in society, in myself that everyone should be quietly optimistic”. Society has changed significantly since David Marr was a teenager feeling unable to live as his authentic self, or since Sue-Ann Post lived as a young “tomboy”, a term that she still feels attached to.
Many pieces recount a sense of confusion, shame and alienation, which lessens or dissolves through acceptance and growing autonomy. The anthology is engaging, poignant and meaningful, offering a great deal to queer people and those who seek to make the life journeys of queer people happier and fairer. As Benjamin Law writes, Growing Up Queer in Australia is the book that he wishes he had had when he “was growing up queer in Australia”. Hopefully, the series will engender sensitivity and awareness in society so that stories like these become the exception rather than the norm.
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