Sally Morris Publications & Articles

World Down Syndrome Day

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 11:38:07 GMT

In years gone by this wasn’t an important day to me, but in September 2023 after a long fertility journey my partner and I welcomed into the world a little bub.

We didn’t know then, nor would we know for another 6 months, but this little human was born with Mosaic Trisomy 21, a rare type of Down Syndrome where only a portion of their cells have the triplicate copy of the chromosome 21.

Since then I have learnt a great deal more about the joys and challenges of Down Syndrome and what this will mean in our family and in the life of my child, but the most important lesson I am still learning is to let go of any definition of ‘normal’. I am well travelled on this journey in the LGBTIQ+ world where I embrace ‘there are no rules’ for the way of being, and I relish raising a gender neutral child, but there are so many expectations placed on this little person about ‘milestones’ and for them this will simply look different. While it may take them longer to do some things and some of those things will be harder for them than for other kids, I do know that they love life and are an absolutely amazing little human who will change the world (actually they already have!).

On World Down Syndrome Day we wear colourful and mismatched socks to start conversations and raise awareness (cause chromosomes are shaped like socks!) and I think is an opportunity to add in a little bit of pride too!

I am in connection mode, and right now I don't know any other queer families with a child with Down Syndrome, nor any little bubs with Mosaic T21, but I am looking forward to finding them and connecting over a shared experience.

R U OK?

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:04:12 GMT

I’m happy to share that have been engaged as a consultant at R U OK? to support the development of their LGBTIQ+ engagement strategy!

R U OK? is a national suicide prevention charity that delivers health promotion to build the motivation and confidence of help givers to meaningfully connect with the people who may be struggling with life.

While R U OK? provides whole of population messages they acknowledge that there are populations, including the LGBTIQ+ communities, who experience higher rates of suicide that benefit from tailored information, messages and resources.

R U OK? has been developing and delivering health promotion messages specifically to the LGBTIQ+ communities since 2017 and has an ongoing commitment to ensuring that our resources are effective in reaching and meeting the needs of the LGBTIQ+ communities.

I will be developing consultation activities over the next few months, so keep an eye out for opportunities to share your ideas on how R U OK? can better reach and engage LGBTIQ+ people and communities in their suicide prevention heath promotion programs and campaigns.

Check out R U OK?'s existing LGBTIQ+ resources here: https://www.ruok.org.au/lgbtiq

Farewell Wendybird

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 12:20:18 GMT

We would like to share with you all that after 7 years we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close Wendybird.

Wendybird started as an idea that was never likely to come to fruition, but in our journeys we found others who shared our vision, dreamed with us, inspired us and energised us to turn this idea into a reality.

As a collective, we dreamed big and had a vision of creating a welcoming, all-inclusive, diversity embracing LGBTIQAP+ community centre with a café and bar... but we started small with community events for all LGBTIQAP+ people, our friends, families and children, who were seeking a place of connection and belonging. We sent out an invitation to you all to think differently about community – to do community differently.

The fact that people actually turned up to our first event in September 2014 was unexpected and mind-blowing. At every passing event we were met with growing numbers and new faces, our philosophy of ‘doing’ community was resonating and being embraced by you all. We saw genuine connections blossom and we witnessed a new kind of community forming around us. It was regenerative, exciting and oh so QUEER!

However, one of the key values of Wendybird is sustainability. We wanted Wendybird to be around for a long time and we invested in this value by ensuring we had a large team of volunteers who kept this community going, dedicating countless hours and unfathomable energy to the planning and delivering of Wendybird events. We also worked hard on countless funding applications and pitched partnering opportunities but were never successful in getting the big wins across the line, the kind that could pay people for their time, knowledge and skills.

Our commitment to Wendybird meant that personally we put many things in life on hold, our personal goals, our hobbies, our self-care, our health, our own social lives and friendships – in the doing of Wendybird our own needs came last. We’ve reached a stage in life where putting ourselves last is no longer sustainable and we need to reinvest our time, energy and care back into ourselves.

We know that this decision will be met by disappointment from many who have found a place of belonging at Wendybird, but we hope we will also be met with understanding.

We are from a community that knows the toll of under-resourcing and burnout all too well. Over the last few years both of our mental and physical health has been impacted by our commitment to Wendybird, and as hard as we tried to make it work, you can’t pour from an empty cup, and we can’t keep going without there being further detrimental impacts. We need to stop, rest and replenish if we are able to contribute meaningfully to our communities in decades to come.

There is great sadness with this decision, as we don’t want the dream, vision and values that have been the foundation of Wendybird to be lost. And it doesn’t have to be. While Wendybird may be ending, we invite you – our vibrant community – to continue carrying on the spirit of Wendybird. When you are feeling alone, remember that community isn’t somewhere we go, rather something we do. So find your people, reach across the divides, connect with each other, and continue to build the communities you dream of.

Thank you to all of those who have been on this journey with us over the last 7 years. We invite you to our final Wendybird event, a farewell to celebrate what we created through countless conversations and unquantifiable connections.

We hope to see you there (and yes, we do mean you!)

From Sally & Asha

Raising our voice: perspectives on suicide in the LGBTI community

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 05:06:33 GMT

Suicide is a maligned word. The act is tainted; for many years in Western cultures it was deemed illegal, a crime against the self. The victim’s body was denied a Christian burial, their estate placed in legal jeopardy. For family that remained, the stigma could survive for generations.

Yet, despite the increasing secularisation of Western society, and the encroachment of science — with its objective, rational mode of enquiry — the opportunity to talk about suicide remains proscribed. The findings of mental health professionals researching in this area are available only within a closed circle of private space bounded by subject-specific scientific literacy. And in the public space of newspapers, the euphemism “no suspicious circumstances” halted discussion until only a few years ago. (Weaver and Wright 2009; Marsh 2010).

In private, the silence remains deafening.

But what might have been said? The irony of suicide is that the experience could never be subjectively verified; the person was no longer alive to add to the discussion. What remained of their identity would collide with the bureaucratic instruments set up to police and manage the aftermath. Formal identification and autopsy might place the person within the pathology of forensic science through dissection, reduction, and re-substantiation. If they were to receive a formal burial, religion might stake a claim, on either body or soul, or both.

As the memories of those left behind might fade, the person would appear to diminish further. Outside of this grief, they would be reduced to a single point of existence: a statistic.

In a further irony, the hallmark constituents of suicide — stigma and silence — are also shared by people living within Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI) communities. However, this is not experienced consistently. Some experiences are loudly and proudly recounted: the devastation and subsequent community response to the HIV epidemic is the most prominent (Power 2011).

Yet, it is told in a story circle of people who remain marginalised and muted, incapable or unwilling to face the ever-present mental health crisis. As the research space into the phenomena of suicide is growing, the LGBTI community have become the ‘object’ of study, rather than the voice, and loved ones still face the challenge of their situation being treated as a statistic.

This PDF publication is available at: https://writingfrombelow.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Raising-Our-Voice.pdf

Raising our voice: perspectives on suicide in the LGBTI community

Writing From Below, Vol 2, No 1, December 2014

ANDREW BLYTHE, SALLY MORRIS & MICHELLE MARS