The Queensland LGBTI Legal Service was officially launched this week by former High Court Judge Michael Kirby at a function held in Teneriffe.

View photos from the opening by CLICKING HERE.

Staffed entirely by lawyers, social workers and administration staff volunteering their time, The LGBTI Legal Service is a non-profit and unfunded operation where lawyers can help clients to understand their legal position and identify their options and is completely confidential.

The service provides free legal advice and information to clients who have legal problems which arise from their identification as LGBTI or because they feel more comfortable in dealing with a legal professional with specific skills, interest and understanding of LGBTI legal issues. The services are provided free of charge and no means test is applied.

Justice Kirby told invited guests that this centre is extremely important and they could expect to face challenges in the future, assisting people through the legal implications that will include issues such as discrimination, violence, rejection by family, humiliation by co-workers, refusal of care and treatment to transexuals, problems with inter-sex people changing the identity that some doctor gave to them at birth.  Justice Kirby said that the changes this service can expect are " .. ongoing challenges of life, they are not big headline winners but they are the sorts of challenges that make the difference between a happy life and a really difficult life.  There's a wonderful line in the American Declaration Of Independence that says that the objects of society are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and I think there's a lot of truth in that.  We don't always succeed but the pursuit of happiness is a basic human inclination, we all pursue it, some even find it, if you're lucky. There's a lot of luck in those things in life.  It's nobody's fault if you don't find it but some people can really stand in the way, and those people have to be persuaded, cajoled, educated and ultimately dealt with by law if they are standing in the way of other people's happiness."

The Service operates an evening advice session every Wednesday from 6pm at 30 Helen Street, Teneriffe. No appointment is required as it is a drop-in service, and the sessions are usually twenty minutes in duration, however sessions will not be taken after 7:30pm. For people who live in rural, regional or remote Queensland areas, a phone appointment may be organised for the next evening session.

For more information, please contact Julie on 0401 936 232 or email lgbti.legalservice@gmail.com

 For more photos of the event CLICK HERE