Orlando has witnessed a worst mass shooting in the US history – murder inspired by gay hate and terror. I write to express my feelings of deepest sympathy to the victims of this horrible crime, their families and friends and to the world-wide LGBTIQ community.

This terrible incident is a stark reminder of why it is important to demonstrable our determined stand against homophobia and transphobia in our workplaces and in public life on a daily basis. There is so much to be done!

I am proud to be working at the Western Sydney University which encourages all our staff and students to actively work to combat homophobia and to provide active support to our GLBTIQ community through the Western’s Ally Network. An Ally is a volunteer (staff or student) from the Western Sydney University community who is committed to cultural change and provides support to LGBTIQ community members at the University.

An inaugural conference about Ally networks at Australian universities will be held at Parramatta on 27-28 June – for more see:  http://allynetwork.com.au