As someone who lives in Petersham, works in Camperdown, and socialises largely on King Street, I’m a pretty firm advocate for the Inner West bubble.

Having grown up in the country, I’m grateful for the safety my bubble brings, and the community I share it with.

But not every queer can live in the increasingly expensive and gentrified space between Redfern and Ashfield. Aside from the fact there just wouldn’t be enough room (maybe if we all invested in bunk beds and had some serious overcrowding happening), not all of us have the luxury of being able to afford the inner city location, or work in sectors that mean we can live in the Inner West with a minimal commute – and of course, there are those of us who simply don’t want to.

The danger of my insulated bubble, love it though I do, is that it tends to neglect anyone outside of it. It’s easy to forget about rampant homophobia when you can kiss your girlfriend at the bus stop. But it’s also easy to invent a myth of the outside world. Is rural Australia really as homophobic as some of us invent it to be? Surely a lot has changed since Priscilla.

Certainly, when I leave my bubble, I can feel the stares, see the looks of shock or derision. But am I inventing them, based on the idea in my head that nowhere is safe outside my bubble? It’s possible that people are just staring at me because I’m different, but not because they hate that difference.

I don’t know the answer to this. But you shouldn’t listen to me anyway. I live, work and love inside the bubble. I don’t really know what happens outside it. And that brings me to who else we forget when we live in our bubble: the queers who don’t. All over Australia, there are queers, individually or in communities, who don’t have their inner city bubble. We should be listening to them to dispel or confirm myths of rural Australia. And we should be supporting them, so that the rest of Australia realises the LGBTQIA community is more than just Newtown and Mardi Gras.

Visibility is the key to tolerance, which is why pride festivals outside of Mardi Gras are so important to promoting the presence of rural queers. Over the last few weeks we had Parramatta Pride and Darwin Pride, to name a few. Alice Springs held a festival in late July, while Coffs Harbour’s CoastOut, which celebrated its fifth year last year, is sadly not running in 2015. Broken Heel, Broken Hill’s celebration of The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, also took place a few weeks ago.

It’s easy to get Mardi Gras tunnel vision, blinded by the fairy lights and glitter. But these smaller festivals need support so the communities outside the bubble can be seen, heard, and then tolerated.

One of the things I love about the queer community is its diversity. And that extends beyond our diversity of sexuality or gender expression, to every kind of diversity. The different jobs, education, families, class, race, locations, political views and life philosophies we have. We’re united by our connection to the LGBTQIA acronym, but different in a lot of other ways.

Recognising that our diversity stems from more than just our sexual or gender difference helps to remind me that we’re not all segregated into the (mostly white, mostly middle class) Inner West bubble. And we don’t have to be.

We can still party in Darwin.

This Week…

On Friday October 9, Claude, ACON’s adventurous women project, is hosting The Atlas of Erotic Anatomy at the ACON offices in Surry Hills. Featuring sex therapist and educator Cyndi Darnell, the event will screen two educational films, Vulvapalooza and Butt: That’s Not All, before a Q&A session.

After you’ve been [re-]educated, head over to Hermann’s Bar for Girlthing. It’s a brand new location, but with all the old favourites: Old Mate, Catlyf, The Gatling Gun and the regular Girlthing DJs.

To add to the extensive list of things to do on Friday night, the Red Rattler is hosting the launch of the new network Sydney Queer Wom*n Of Colour with a screening of the short film Vow Of Silence, followed by a Q&A with director Be Steadwell.

Saturday October 10 sees the return of Swagger to Arq, and this time it’s a boy bands versus girl groups party. They’re pitting it as a Backstreet Boys versus Destiny’s Child contest, but to me that one is a no-brainer.

[Photo courtesy Emmett Anderson/Flickr]