“I finally feel accepted and celebrated as a bisexual woman”

In honour of Pride Month this June, we interviewed Feros Care employees from the LGBTQIA+SB Community. Hear from Georgia, as she shares her journey to becoming a proud bisexual woman.

At 27, Georgia is a proud bisexual woman. But it wasn’t always that way.

“I grew up thinking it wasn’t normal or OK to be queer,” she says. “My parents made jokes and used inappropriate slang whenever the topic was approached.”

After questioning her sexuality for several months, Georgia realised she was bisexual at the age of 21. “Even though I was a fully grown adult, I was scared to come out,” she reveals. “I was filled with fear of losing my family and friends.”

When she plucked up the courage to tell them, she was pleasantly surprised. “Thankfully, I didn’t experience much discrimination from my family or friends,” she says. “But don’t get me wrong – I did lose a few who couldn’t cope with the idea of change.”

Georgia was subjected to countless insensitive comments, including ‘it’s just a phase, everyone dabbles’ and ‘it must be hard living with two women.’ She learnt to shrug them off, but they still hurt.

In March 2021, Georgia met a woman on Tinder. “For me, it was love at first sight,” she smiles. “I knew the moment I saw her walk in front of my car at Nando’s. We did the lesbian ‘U-Haul’ trick and moved in together in May and got engaged by the end of that month. We got married in October 2022 and we’re now building a house. It’s not a phase, it’s my life.”

While Georgia is proud of who she is and the life she’s building with her wife, they still contend with small-mindedness and bigotry on a daily basis. “If we’re holding hands in public, some people still stare or feel it’s appropriate to physically stop us to say they’re allies or ask if we know their gay grandson who lives in California,” she says.

“In my last job at a male-dominated agency, it wasn’t cool or even safe to be queer. I experienced so many offhand comments like ‘lesbians and gays don’t have real sex, so it’s not sexual assault’, ‘either be gay or straight, but don’t lead everyone on’ and ‘just trick a man for his sperm and save yourself the money and hassle.’ These hurt me more than I realised at the time and I didn’t really speak out for fear of retribution or being ostracised.”

Georgia has since left that toxic workplace and joined the team at Feros Care. “I’ve been accepted and celebrated at Feros,” she says. “The team has asked my opinion and gained understanding and education around the queer community and the appropriate terms.”

“By doing that, they’ve helped me become a proud bisexual woman. I’m thriving and have found my community. I now correct stigmas, terms and pronouns, and I champion change in the workplace. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed creating our Townsville Pride event and being a part of the Feros Pride committee.”

When it comes to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, Georgia encourages people to educate themselves on the correct terms, flags and pronouns. “If you aren’t sure of someone’s pronouns, use they/them until you’re told otherwise. My grandma told me, ‘in my day, you called everyone Mr and Mrs, but now it’s they/them out of respect. Times change and we have to move with it or we’ll get left behind and segregated from the pack.’”

Wise words!​​​​​​​