Sunday 17 May, Your IDAHOBIT Can Actually Shape Government Policy
Private Lives 4 is open. La Trobe University runs it, Meridian is among the community organisations pushing it, and your answers feed straight into federal LGBTIQA+ health policy through 2035.
Sunday 17 May is IDAHOBIT, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia. This year, it arrives with something practical you can do in a single sitting. Private Lives 4, run by La Trobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), is now open to every LGBTIQA+ person in Australia aged 18 and over. It’s anonymous, online, and the data goes to the people writing the next decade of national LGBTIQA+ health policy. Why does that matter? Because what doesn’t get measured rarely gets funded.
What is Private Lives 4?
It’s the fourth iteration of the country’s longest-running national survey of LGBTIQA+ health and wellbeing. ARCSHS has been documenting the lives of queer Australians for more than 20 years, with the first Private Lives in 2005, the second in 2011, and the third in 2020. PL4 picks up from there with a wider lens.
The survey covers mental and physical health, identity, healthcare access, employment, relationships, ageing, alcohol and other drug use, community connection, and experiences of discrimination and intimate partner violence. There are dedicated questions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+ people, so the data isn’t flattened the way too many studies still flatten it.
“The information we gather from the study will help to inform better policies, programs and services for the LGBTIQA+ community,” said Professor Adam Bourne, Director of ARCSHS and the survey’s principal investigator. The findings feed directly into the federal government’s National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025-2035.
Why 17 May matters
On 17 May 1990, the World Health Assembly adopted ICD-10, the global classification of diseases, which removed homosexuality from the World Health Organization’s list of mental disorders. The anniversary is now marked in more than 130 countries, according to may17.org, the international IDAHOBIT secretariat. ILGA World’s May 2025 dataset records 64 UN member states that still criminalise consensual same-sex acts. The 2026 IDAHOBIT theme is “At the Heart of Democracy.”
Meridian wants Canberra on board
In the Australian Capital Territory, Meridian, Canberra’s largest HIV and LGBTQIA+ community-controlled organisation, is among the groups asking locals to take part. Meridian CEO Joshua Anlezark has previously said “the ACT has some of the highest rates of late diagnosis of HIV in Australia and low HIV testing rates, especially among gay, bisexual and queer men.” Private Lives 4 is built to surface exactly those gaps in detail, so services can be designed for the actual community.
How to take it
The survey is anonymous, online, and open until 1 July 2026 to anyone aged 18 and over who identifies as LGBTIQA+ and lives in Australia. Find it through ARCSHS at La Trobe University, or via Meridian at meridianact.org.au.
Sweat with Pride is another way to make 17 May count
If sitting still and filling in a survey isn’t your thing, Rainbow Giving Australia has the other end of the spectrum covered. Sweat with Pride is a 30-day movement challenge running through June, raising money for the LGBTIQA+ community organisations that receive just five cents in every $100 donated to Australian charities (Rainbow Resources report, 2022).
The 2026 round has already pulled in more than $20,000 and 850 sign-ups, with a target of 1,000 by IDAHOBIT. Make a $21 self-donation by 21 May and Rainbow Giving will double it to $42. New ambassadors this year include actor and content creator Kath Ebbs (they/them), culture strategist Lou Keck (she/her), and Mitch Brown (he/him), the former West Coast Eagles defender who in August 2025 became the first man in AFL history to come out publicly as bisexual. Nine, Qantas, Macquarie Group and Hays have already signed teams up.
There’s also a free community launch event on Saturday 16 May from 10:30am at the Inner West Pride Centre in Newtown. Sign up or RSVP at sweatwithpride.org.au.
The bottom line
At DNA, we reckon either is worth your time. Queer Australians have spent decades being studied as case files. Private Lives 4 is the survey where the community writes its own brief, and Sweat with Pride is the same energy with cardio. Both are how change actually gets made.
