Lesbian, gay and bisexual homelessness in Australia: Risk and resilience factors to consider in policy and practice.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people are more likely than heterosexual people to experience homelessness. The study aimed to compare risk and resilience factors commonly associated with homelessness according to sexual identity to inform more LGB-inclusive and targeted policy and service provision in this area. The study involved analysis of data from two Australian surveys: the General Social Survey 2014 (n = 17,401) and the Journeys Home study (n = 1,659).

Use of fertility services in Australian lesbian, bisexual and queer women's pathways to parenthood.

Background: It is estimated that up to one in three lesbian, bisexual or queer (LBQ) women in Australia have children. In the past decade, it has become common for LBQ women to pursue pregnancy using clinic-acquired donor sperm.

Aims: The aims of this paper are to explore pathways to parenthood among Australian LBQ women in the context of increased access to fertility clinics and identify the type of clinical fertility services being used.

The Donor-Linking Practices of Australian Fertility Clinics.

While Australia is a world leader in providing statutory donor-linking services - the practice whereby individuals connected through donor conception seek access to information about each other - there has been only limited exploration of how fertility clinics respond when approached with donor-linking requests. This article reports on 19 qualitative interviews conducted with Australian fertility clinic staff that explored how clinics manage requests to share identifying and non-identifying information about parties involved in donor conception. Our findings indicate that fertility clinics have experienced an increase in donor-linking requests in recent years, but that they are typically dealt with on an ad hoc basis.

Applications to statutory donor registers in Victoria, Australia: information sought and expectations of contact.

Knowledge of genetic origins is widely believed to have consequences for health, family belonging and personal identity. Donor linking is the process by which donors, recipient parents (RP) and donor-conceived people (DCP) gain access to identifying information about each other. This paper reports on the information and contact sought by donor-linking applicants to the central and voluntary registers in the state of Victoria, Australia, which has one of the most comprehensive donor-linking legislative frameworks in the world.

Culturally embedded health beliefs, self-care and the use of anti-ageing medicine among Australian and Japanese older adults.

Adopting Kleinman's and Lock's ideas that there are cultural variations in understandings of health care and the medicalisation of ageing bodies, this study compares and contrasts older adults' use of anti-ageing medicine in two cultural settings. Based on 42 interviews conducted in Australia and Japan with adults aged 60 and over, findings revealed distinct pathways to initiating anti-ageing medicine use between the two cohorts which reflect different attitudes to the medicalisation of ageing in the two settings. In Australia where consultation of medical doctors for major and minor ailments is routine for many older adults, supplement use was initiated on doctor's advice, or reactionary, in that dissatisfaction with doctors' advice was the impetus.

Experiences and Motives of Australian Single Mothers by Choice Who Make Early Contact with their Child's Donor Relatives.

An increasing number of Australian parents of donor-conceived children are making contact with their child's donor relatives prior to their child reaching the age of majority. This process, often referred to as 'donor linking', can be achieved in Australia through either formal or informal mechanisms. Formal mechanisms exist in three states, each of which has legislation enabling donor linking in certain circumstances.

Donor, father or parent? Conceiving paternity in the Australian Family Court.

Planned parenthood within the international lesbian and gay communities has attracted considerable attention and controversy in the past decade. On 5 April 2002, Guest J of the Family Court of Australia acknowledged a lesbian couple as resident parents of 2-year-old 'Patrick'. This judgement was remarkable in that it signalled a break with the well-documented international legal non-recognition of lesbian non-biological parents.