I might not get killed at Connections but I'm cautious about being gay in WA

Even before the Orlando shooting I would think about being gay everyday.

Who I should be open to, whether I was being "too gay" and when I should talk about footy instead of baking.

The shooting was shocking both because it was so random and because many of us were surprised LGBTI people hadn't been targeted sooner.

Homophobia is in every part of our community. The only place we didn't think we saw it was on the dance floor, where we don't think about anyone else.

We are caught up in the music. For LGBTI people this is more real, because it is one of the rare public places where our sexuality isn't questioned.

I'm unlikely to be murdered at The Court or Connections on Saturday night, but I am always cautious about what it means to be gay in Perth.

Homophobia dogs us at every turn.

LGBTI people are told to shut up and be quiet about being gay at work. Told not to hold hands in public. To go along with a joke. To be silent in the face of overt and covert discrimination.

And this is why Orlando hits all of our hearts.

At a club I don't have to deepen my voice, firm my handshake or think about the way I walk like I do at every other moment.

The stories and stats paint a poor picture of what it means to be LGBTI in 2016.

Last week accountants PwC told us that more than 50 per cent of us have seen or heard homophobia in the past year. And almost one in five LGBTI people believe being "out" could negatively impact them. 

And Bureau of Statistics evidence shows that LGBTI people are twice as likely to experience discrimination than the general population. We are also twice as likely to be multiple victims of crime. 

Being gay in Perth and Australia probably won't leave me dead on the floor of a club, but it does consume every part of my life.

And this is what needs to change.

LGBTI people cannot be attacked physically, emotionally or socially for living their life. We cannot continue to accept homophobia in any of its forms.

Like State MP Peter Abetz using his voice to spout untruths about LGBTI people weekly, and a senate candidate frightened by gay people marrying than dying.

Or that still gay men cannot donate blood for fear of AIDS.

Or that LGBTI people in our suburbs face similar discrimination to that in rural Australia. 

Even knowing that the attack was in a gay club, Malcolm Turnbull and Richard Di Natale could not immediately conclude that this was an attack, at least in part, on LGBTI people.

Each of us are at pains to admit that homophobic attitudes exist and we even accept them from those we love.

And in turn we ignore the struggle and challenges of being gay right here in Australia.

LGBTI people probably won't be the victims of a mass shooting in Australia.

But being gay in WA comes with a risk. Catalysed by the homophobia we blindly accept.

Conrad Liveris is a workforce diversity specialist