It's been two years since Australians overwhelmingly voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage but other minorities within the queer community are feeling their issues often go unheard.
University of Canberra student, Jace Reh, 19, is a transgender man and identified himself as pansexual.
"A lot of focus in the queer community goes towards lesbian and gay people as they have longstanding traditions such as Mardi Gras and things like that which really take the focus when it comes to media," he said.
Mr Reh will be on a panel, run by UC, on Thursday exploring the "often-unheard" stories from the "other colours of the rainbow", such as bisexual, transgender, gender diverse, intersex and queer communities.
"This panel is all about trying to open up about things like rainbow families, non-binary people and transgender people," he said.
He will be joined by UC researchers, Robin Ladwig and Raechel Johns, and chief minister Andrew Barr.
Writer and TV personality Benjamin Law is chairing the panel.
"It's a timely discussion about where Australia is at with LGBTIQA rights," said Mr Law.
"These are conversations the queer community was having before, during and definitely after the postal survey which is where to next.
"A lot of that conversation is to do with the often overlooked minorities within the minority group. When it comes to our transgender siblings, intersex, a-sexual folks - what are their needs in the community."
For, Mr Reh he wanted to see reform in the public health system.
"For me a big one is all about public health for transition so things like surgery and things for transgender people being covered by the public health system," he said.
"These are necessary surgical interventions, they are not just for the fun of it. They need to be had in order to make transgender people feel comfortable as themselves.
"We just can't continue to live in this body that doesn't feel right that's where we get suicides and self harm in the transgender community, a lot of it is due to body dysphoria."
Mr Law said while the 2017 marriage plebiscite showed a majority of Australians supported same-sex marriage, conversations with the broader community on these issues were important.
"An overwhelming yes vote for same-sex marriage is not the same as Australians being overwhelmingly comfortable with transgender people," he said.
"It's not a metric or measure of Australians being overwhelmingly comfortable with their own child coming out as same-sex attracted.
"It's not a measure of whether Australians feel comfortable with a transgender teacher teaching their children for instance."
-
UC will host a panel on the other colours of the rainbow on Thursday night at Tilley's Devine Cafe as part of its UnCover series.
.png?w=600)
