Ten Years In: A Letter to the People Who Made This Possible
We've been sitting with this for a while now, trying to find the right words.
Ten years is a long time. And when you've spent most of it chasing grants, stretching budgets, and running on the belief that this work matters, it can be hard to stop and actually take it in.
So that's what we want to do today.
Stop. Look back. And say thank you.
This started in 2016 in a living room. A small group of us sat around and asked a simple question: what does our community actually need? We formed a steering committee of 20 people representing the diversity of our community, and consulted with hundreds more over 12 months.
We met in the evenings around a table, volunteers giving up their time, most of us working full-time jobs. And in January 2018, we opened the doors of Melbourne Town Hall for our first Better Together conference. Over 600 people walked in.
We had no idea if anyone would show up.
But you did. And you kept coming back.
Since then:
Over 7,000 voices brought together at events
Over 3,000 people backed through scholarships
Over 4,000 learners upskilled through training
And more than half of everyone who has ever come through our doors accessed a scholarship, subsidised or free ticket, because we always believed access shouldn't be determined by income.
Those numbers matter. But they don't tell the whole story.
The work has never been for us. It has always been for the person who flew from Perth, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart or Cairns to be in a room with people like them for two days.
For the person who came out after attending their first Better Together. For the grassroots advocate who finally had a stage.
For the two people in Mount Gambier who deserved training just as much as anyone in the city. We drove from Melbourne to make that happen.
And we travelled to Perth, Brisbane, regional SA and Victoria to bring leadership and advocacy training directly to people there. We would do it all again.
Here is some of what we built together over ten years.
So far, we have run 7 Better Togethers across Melbourne, Adelaide, Geelong and Sydney, and one regional Better Together in Canberra.
People tell us it's one of the most nourishing gatherings of its kind they've ever been to. In 2024, 91% of attendees who responded to our survey said they had a positive experience.
Part of what makes it work is who shows up, and who gets seen. From the very beginning, we gave the bisexual community a platform and helped bring people together when those spaces simply didn't exist anywhere else.
At that very first conference, we also launched Australia's first LGBTIQA+ Policy Guide. Developed consultatively with communities, advocates, and experts, it was a resource that had never existed in this country before. A second edition followed a couple of years later.
To date it has been downloaded over 3,500 times.
We were among the first organisations to include the I in the acronym, giving the intersex community a platform at our very first Better Together in 2018.
And soon after, we added the A, making space for the asexual community before most others did. In 2020, we hosted what we believe was the biggest trans and gender diverse caucus in Australia, a facilitated gathering for 100 people in Melbourne.
We've welcomed extraordinary guests from around the world to our stages, including the Choir from ABBA The Museum in Sweden, who flew out to perform for us not once, but twice.
We ran Health and Wellbeing Days for rainbow communities in Melbourne and Adelaide, because mental health and connection matter just as much as advocacy.
We designed and delivered leadership and capacity building programs for advocates and changemakers right across the country. Training that would normally cost thousands, available to community at a fraction of that.
We spent a year driving through regional and remote South Australia, talking to communities who rarely get heard, so their voices could reach government. That work culminated in the SA Discovery Report, ensuring what we heard didn't just stay in the room.
That's the kind of work we don't see ourselves walking away from.
We created the Festival for the Future, a dedicated event for older rainbow community members in regional South Australia, bringing services and connection to people who had been waiting far too long for both.
As part of every Better Together conference, we ran the Rainbow Leaders Summit as a dedicated pre-conference day, bringing together rainbow community leaders and decision-makers in a space that simply didn't exist anywhere else.
And we are proud of our partnership with The Long Walk, who joined us in 2023 to open Better Together with a Welcome to Country. Together we continue to walk alongside each other in the spirit of reconciliation and truth-telling.
And just last month, in March 2026, we held our very first Better Together Women in partnership with The Long Walk. A new chapter, ten years in the making, and one we are excited to grow.
None of this came from the top down. There was no seed funding, no startup grant, no institutional backer. For a long time, the core team did all of this as volunteers. Some of us for over a year.
No pay, no guarantee, just a belief that it needed to exist. We started at a kitchen table. Honestly, that's still where most of the decisions get made.
We know this work is hard. We know there are days when you wonder if it's worth it. We've had those days too. But we keep showing up.
Because the people who need this work don't get to take a day off from being who they are.
If you are out there doing it too, we see you. And we hope that somewhere along the way, we made it a little easier.
To every volunteer who gave their time, every partner and sponsor who believed in us, every pro bono supporter who made something possible that otherwise wouldn't have been, every donor who gave without being asked twice, and to The Long Walk Foundation who walked alongside us, thank you. This genuinely does not happen without you.
Now, what's next? ☺️
Better Together will return in 2027. And by popular demand, the next Rainbow Leaders Summit is set for 26 November 2026, with expressions of interest opening in July.
We are constantly learning, and we want to keep growing - as humans first.
If you've made it this far, you're already part of this story. So here's the bit we really wanted to share with you.
This work has shaped us. And it has shown us something else, too. The world needs better conversations. Not just within our communities, but across every line of difference that's pulling people apart.
That's why we're starting something new.
We are launching the Centre for Civil Dialogue, incubated within The Equality Project. Conversations across difference are harder than they've ever been. Learning to have them well might be one of the most important things any of us can do right now.
If this matters to you, come and have a look at what we're building.
One last thing. We want to hear from you.
Do you have a memory from one of our events or programs? A moment that shifted something? A connection you made, a conversation that stayed with you, something that changed how you see yourself or the world?
We'd love to hear yours. Email us at mail@equality.org.au or tag us (@equalityproj_au) when you share this post.
We are collecting stories from the people who have been part of this journey, and yours matters more than you know.
We look forward to seeing you at the next Better Together in 2027. 🌈
With so much gratitude,
Jason, Marnie, TJ and Adrian
The Equality Project Team 💜
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