Queer residents on Sunshine Coast create safe spaces amid lack of permanent LGBTQIA+ venues

With no permanent LGBTQIA+ venue on the Sunshine Coast, queer residents are creating their own safe spaces.

For Alison Nolan, the lack of options meant travelling outside the region.

"Every queer person I've spoken to on the Sunshine Coast has the same comment," Ms Nolan said.

"There's nowhere to go, no events, no spaces specific to queer people."

Inspired by a club in Brisbane, Ms Nolan and co-founder Lucy Upston established a social club that runs events including trivia, picnics and games nights for queer women and gender-diverse people.

Ms Nolan said the need was clear.

Grace Manning started an LGBTQIA+ run club after moving to the region about a year ago.

"I was really missing that queer community," Ms Manning said, adding that finding queer belonging locally had been "really special".

"If you don't see a particular box [you fit into] or you don't see yourself in your peers, you just feel lonely and isolated."

Community adapting

Queensland Council for LGBTI Health chief executive Rebecca Reynolds said queer spaces traditionally centred on bars and clubs, but that was changing with the growth of social and wellness-focused groups.

She said what was happening on the Sunshine Coast was "unique" and an example of the community "responding to its own needs".

"The more places of safety and belonging we can grow, the better off we will all be," she said.

Maroochydore had a dedicated queer cafe in recent years, but it closed its doors after less than two years due to "mounting financial challenges".

Aqualicious, a Queensland Masters swimming club for LGBTQIA+ people, expanded to the Sunshine Coast two years ago.

President Isaac Goessling said the club deliberately avoided being "overly rainbow", catering to people at different stages of their queer journeys as well as allies.

"A lot of our members have perhaps only just come out about their sexuality and who they are," he said.

"Whereas some of our members go to every single Pride event."

Mr Goessling said sporting environments could be "jarring" and "not particularly safe" for queer people.

Homophobia in sports

In 2024, the Free to Exist report found LGBTQIA+ young people were 50 per cent less likely to participate in a sporting club than the broader community.

"For us … it's not even a question; it's just, 'Come and swim,'" Mr Goessling said.

Mr Goessling said the club was about more than swimming.

"It's about engaging in healthy lifestyles, getting coffee together, doing bits and pieces of our life together and just being who we are," he said.

Connection overcomes isolation

James Fowler, an affiliate research fellow at the University of Queensland's Schools of Psychology, said social connection was one of the "biggest predictors of mortality".

"As you get older, a lack of social connection can have really devastating health impacts," Dr Fowler said, adding that fear could be a powerful driver of isolation, and connection could help to overcome it.

"Opportunities to connect are so important for people to see other people like them, to have role models who have faced similar things to them that maybe they won't get from traditional media outlets or family members."

Dr Fowler said the trend on the Sunshine Coast could point to an unmet need.

A Sunshine Coast Council representative said it was "committed to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome, respected and connected, regardless of their background, identity or circumstance".

The representative said community facilities were designed to be inclusive for all members of the community, and that it had provided grant funding to LGBTQIA+ events such as the Pride Festival Fair Day and the Rangebow Festival.

Ms Nolan said she hoped to see places of safety for queer people continue to grow on the coast.

"You can't really put into words how important having a space where you can just be your true authentic self is," she said.