About Us

Acceptance Perth is a community is made up of LGBTIQA+ Catholics and Christians from other denominations at many different points in their journey – some devout, some lapsed, some finding their way back, and some still unsure what they believe. There are those who have never left the Church, and those who were hurt by it and are only now beginning to return.

We have couples and singles, young adults and retirees, people born in Perth and people who have come from somewhere else entirely.

What binds us together is a shared question: whether there is a place in the Catholic Church for someone like us – and a desire to find others who are asking the same.

We gather for fellowship, learn and talk about our faith, over a cuppa or a shared meal. Some people are quite chatty, some are more of a listener. What you choose to share about yourself with us is totally up to you.

As a volunteer-led community, we have also helped create spaces that did not previously exist – establishing Perth’s first Christian and interfaith Pride events included in the PrideWA guide, founding the Rainbow Interfaith Alliance, and through our correspondence with Sr Jeannine Gramick, receiving a personal letter of congratulations from Pope Francis addressed to the broader Acceptance movement in Australia.

If you are looking for a community rooted in Catholic faith and open to who you are, you are welcome here.

To find out when we meet, please visit our events page.

A picnic held in the 1990s. Jim Sieler and Margaret Hawke (pictured) were central to Acceptance Perth during its early decades.

Acceptance Australia is one of the world’s longest-running LGBTIQA+ Catholic organisations, founded in 1972 and running continuously ever since. You can read more about the history here – including the story of Acceptance Sydney, which has held the fort for the national network across the decades.

Acceptance Perth began in May 1979, when Dennis Kelly gathered a small group of LGBTIQA+ Catholics together. A Jesuit priest, Fr John Harte SJ, supported them in those early years, and slowly a community took shape – monthly home Masses, a social club, and newsletters that kept people connected.

Jim Sieler became President of Acceptance Perth in 1983 and held this position for most of the decade. During this period, one of the Acceptance Australia National Conferences took place in Perth. When the Fr John Harte SJ left for abroad, several Marist priests helped to celebrate mass.

In 1986, Acceptance Perth became a formally incorporated organisation – Acceptance West (Inc.) – a practical step that reflected how seriously they took their work.

As other LGBTIQA+ Christian groups began forming in Perth in the mid-1980s, Acceptance did not see them as competition. They built relationships – with Uniting Friends, Integrity (Anglican), and the Metropolitan Community Church – and donated regularly to local charities. They understood that the work of inclusion was bigger than any one group.

The HIV/AIDS crisis brought new urgency. Dennis Kelly took up a role with the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service, and together with Acceptance, worked to ensure that spiritual care was part of the support available to those affected. For many, faith and crisis were inseparable – and Acceptance understood that.

By the end of the decade, the group had earned genuine recognition within the Archdiocese thanks to relationships with Archbishop Foley and other Catholic organisations. In 1989, Jim Sieler attended the Perth Archdiocesan Assembly as the official delegate representing the Catholic gay community – one of approximately 600 delegates, and the only one there specifically for them. The ministry of homosexual people was raised multiple times during the assembly. It was, by any measure, a significant moment.

1990 was a memorable year. They were invited to participate in an official Archdiocesan event on adult faith education. Some members marched in Perth’s first Pride parade, linking arms with each other in a quiet but meaningful act of solidarity at a time when doing so took real courage. Acceptance also moved into office space at W.I.S.H. (Western Institute of Self-Help) – now called AlikeWA – at 80 Railway Road in Cottesloe, where they continued to celebrate Mass.

Margaret Hawke became President in 1991, also serving as the Women’s Affairs Liaison.

In 1993, Acceptance Perth ceased to exist.

In 2019, a Facebook page appeared: Perth LGBT Catholics. It had no followers at first – just a quiet hope that there might be other LGBTIQA+ Catholics in Perth looking for a place where faith and identity could coexist.

The name was soon changed to Acceptance Perth LGBT Catholics – a deliberate decision, recommended by the Rainbow Catholics InterAgency, to join the national Acceptance network that has supported LGBTIQA+ Catholic communities across Australia since 1972. Being part of that network meant connection, legitimacy, and the strength that comes from not standing alone.

A few conversations followed. Then an online gathering with one local person, joined by three friends from Acceptance Melbourne who offered encouragement from across the country.

When we organised our first in-person meetup, a Facebook ad went out to spread the word – and reached someone unexpected. Jim Sieler, who had led Acceptance Perth through much of the 1980s, saw the name on our ad and reached out. We met and he shared the full history: how between 1979 and 1993, the previous version of Acceptance Perth had gathered for Mass, built community, and advocated for recognition within the Church. The name we had chosen was a legacy we were now being invited to carry forward.

The early days were hard. It was 2020, and COVID made gathering difficult. But slowly, people started coming. We met at different parishes in those first years, finding our way. Then in 2023, we found our spiritual home in a warm and generous religious community.

The community officially formed in April 2020 and has grown steadily since.

In November 2022, we hosted the first religious event included in the official PrideWA guide – Queer Christian Stories, in which five people shared their experiences of navigating faith alongside sexuality and gender identity. It was important to us that the storytellers reflected the diversity of the Perth queer Christian community – representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary experiences, and coming from different ages and backgrounds including people who grew up in Perth, regional Western Australia, and overseas. The storytellers were also a mix of Catholics and Protestants, reflecting the breadth of the Christian community that gathered with us.

Our panel of speakers from Queer Christian Stories

In 2023, we were delighted to receive a personal handwritten letter from Pope Francis congratulating Acceptance Australia on our 50th anniversary – pictured here, revealing the letter in Spanish held alongside its English translation at our Golden Jubilee celebration.

Later that year, we held Perth’s first multifaith Pride Month event, bringing together LGBTIQA+ people and allies from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and other faith traditions. From this grew the Rainbow Interfaith Alliance, co-founded with LGBTIQA+ affirming pastoral and organisational leaders across Perth, to build capacity and create safe spaces for LGBTIQA+ people of faith across traditions.

In 2024, the Rainbow Interfaith Alliance hosted the first queer interfaith service held at any university in Australia, at Curtin University – bringing together LGBTIQA+ people of faith from across traditions in a historic first for Australian higher education.

In 2025, we were named a Finalist by AlikeWA in the category of Inclusive Practice. AlikeWA is the peak body for peer support groups across Western Australia, representing and advocating for peer-led community groups throughout the state. For a small volunteer-led community, this recognition affirms the work we do to make the Church safer, braver, and more welcoming for LGBTIQA+ Catholics in Perth and beyond.