Wear it Purple 2022 - Human Library (Burwood)

I am Ernie and this is my Mum.

Ernie (He/Him) and Tarryn (She/Her)

I am Ernie and I am gender diverse. I was about 4 years old when I realised that I wanted to be a boy. I can’t remember why I felt like a boy, but things didn’t feel right being a girl. Since I was 4 years old I have chosen to be boy and in Grade one I was brave enough to change my pronouns and then my name. Everyone at school and my family was nice and supportive. I have started blockers now which was stressful at first because I don’t like needles. Now I’m used to them. In the future I hope to stay trans, but I might change.

I’m Ernie’s Mum, Tarryn. When Ernie was born, I was so excited to have a little girl to dress up. However as soon as Ernie could voice his preferences, for example, not to wear dresses or a skirt, that is what he did! In role play activities at kindergarten, Ernie was always the Knight or the King; never the damsel or the princess. His kindergarten teacher told us they had never seen a kid so committed to being a boy. We were referred to the Gender clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital who have been fantastic. Our family and community have also been really supportive. At the end of the day, whatever gender, Ernie is an amazing person and we all love him dearly.

As part of Deakin’s commitment to child safety, every person connected to the University has a duty of care to children.

Queer: Melanin Tales

Vishal Ravindran (He/She/They)

Coming to Australia in June 2019 was a sigh of great relief, I found comfort in the fact that I was 8000 kilometers away from the toxicity and the backward thinking of my home country. The thought comforted me so much that I am the only international student I know who has never been home-sick. But now that I was here… what’s next?

I had never really asked myself about the AFTER of moving into a country that is accepting of people like me; I didn’t know where to begin, I didn’t know what to do, I was all alone and lost. All I had was a suitcase full of dull clothes I didn’t care for, and a blank headspace.

But flash-forward three years, I’m the happiest I’ve been my entire life. I can’t tell you how much pain gets eased every time I open my closet to see the beautiful pieces of clothes I now own, the drawer full of colours and shimmer that I wear boldly on my face, the confidence to wear my identity, beautifully, in the public eye; none of which my younger self would have dreamt of.

You would think coming out of the closet is the biggest hurdle you face as a queer person, but that’s not the case for a queer person of colour. So, ask me. What did it take to be able to love myself for who I AM, rather than who people wanted me to be?

Glad to be Gay

Oscar I Roos (He/Him)

‘Sing if you're glad to be gay

Sing if you're happy that way’

Tom Robinson Band, (Sing If You’re) Glad to Be Gay

Dr Oscar I Roos is glad to be gay. He has been ‘that way’ for 55 years and hopes for a few more years yet. From boppin’ to ‘Crocodile Rock’ as a child in the ‘70s, he (like Elton) came out in the 1980’s just as AIDS and peak homophobia hit. He was told ‘not to do anything’ or he would be expelled from his elite all-boys school, that ‘he would be very lonely for the rest of his life’ and that ’it was disgusting’. Fast forward to now and he lives with his long-term partner of 25 years in a world where it is possible for two men (or two women) to marry (not that he is interested!), the Australian Foreign Minister is an out-lesbian and AIDS is a manageable chronic disease. What happened in-between?

Well, Zen Buddhism, a career in the law as a barrister and academic, four university degrees and heaps and heaps of therapy (thank you Medicare), just to name a few. As a child Oscar escaped from the world by getting lost in books, so he is very pleased that he has now become one. Feel free to borrow him and open at any page.