Victoria Police LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Action Plan 2023-2024

Victoria Police respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the country throughout Victoria.

We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging and continue to recognise and embrace the fact that Aboriginal People are connected to the oldest, continuous culture and history.

Victoria Police proudly acknowledges the First Peoples of Victoria and their ongoing strength in practicing the world’s oldest living culture.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters on which we live and work and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We acknowledge the invaluable contributions of all those who have paved the way and fought for the rights of Aboriginal people, including the right to Self-Determination.

We recognise the continuing leadership of the Victorian Aboriginal community and our employees, who have contributed and paved the way, to creating a more inclusive and culturally safe workplace.

In the spirit of Self-Determination, Victoria Police is committed to strengthening our partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal community, as we continue to embrace diversity and equity across our organisation.

Our understanding of LGBTIQ+ communities is continually evolving.

The term ‘LGBTIQ+’ refers to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and/or queer and/or questioning.

Queer is an umbrella term for a range of sexual and gender identities. The word was historically used as a slur against LGBTI people but has now been reclaimed with pride, especially by the younger generation LGBTIQ+ community. Queer is used within this document to encompass people who self-identify as Queer.

We use variations of the term throughout this action plan, for example, terms like ‘TGD’ (trans and gender diverse) or ‘LGBT’ depending on specific communities referenced. We also note that some Aboriginal communities use the terms ‘sistergirls’ and ‘brotherboys’.

Victoria Police’s human resources IT system was updated in 2021 to include the capture of a person’s gender identity, sex characteristics and sexual orientation. Since the introduction of this feature, all employees are encouraged to voluntarily update their diversity data. Note also that the current data capture may not always account for the experiences of people with an intersex variation.