2016 has been a very big year for everyone here at ARCSHS!

You may have noticed that we have been on the receiving end of a significant amount of attention from the media, with upwards of 240 newspaper, TV, and radio spots around Australia featuring ARCSHS projects.

While time in the media spotlight was not always easy, when reflecting on this astonishing figure we can say without doubt that ARCSHS has been an integral part of some powerful, stimulating and formative conversations on a national stage.

We are very proud of all the wonderful work of the Centre. This year we produced 3 books, 14 book chapters, 83 refereed journal articles (including advanced online pub.) and made 86 presentations, marking another excellent year of significant intellectual, social and community impact.

Last week we learnt that the Victorian Department of Education and Training will take over the management and delivery of Safe Schools Coalition Victoria. This year saw the dedicated SSCV team deliver training to 6142 school staff and education students, sign up 40 new schools and send out 15,000 resources to member schools and future member schools in Victoria. The SSCV team have done a brilliant job in difficult times, and however this transition unfolds, all of their work to create safe and inclusive schools will continue to make a positive difference.

Looking forward to 2017, we are excited about two new additions to the ARCSHS team:

Associate Professor Christopher Fisher has a PhD in Health Behaviour (Indiana University) and a Masters in Human Sexuality Studies (San Francisco State University) and comes to us from the University of Nebraska and most recently Curtin University. He has wide ranging research interests in sexual literacy for all ages as well as a range of experience in community-based research through to LGBTIQ health and wellbeing.

Associate Professor Adam Bourne has a PhD in critical health psychology and has worked in applied public health research for the past 10 years. He comes to us from the Sigma group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he has developed an international research program focusing on understanding HIV risk-related behaviour among marginalised populations.

We look forward to welcoming our two new Associate Professors in the coming year.

To finish, we leave you with the words of our recently appointed Distinguished Ambassador the Honourable Michael Kirby.

"I congratulate the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society on its work over the past year.

The struggle to spread enlightenment and knowledge about the role of sex in a healthy society is an ongoing one. There is something about the topic that makes a lot of people intensely nervous, fearful, hostile and ashamed. In part these feelings may come from aspects of their own upbringing or personal experiences. In part, they may come from religious or cultural instruction. In part, they may come from disappointing encounters with sex or bad health experiences. There are doubtless many explanations. The experience of humanity over the last century has been that the road of wisdom runs through pathways of empirical research. Only when beliefs, fears and intuition are measured against the standards of empirical knowledge can public policy be placed on a sound foundation.

This is where the work of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society comes in. It is why I am proud to be an Ambassador to support its mission and to promote the methodology of empirical research in this field. I know from my own early life of the burdens that are cast upon innocent people by ignorant and unscientific attitudes. An important step to changing this feature of humanity was the research of Alfred Kinsey at Indiana University in the United States of America in the 1940s-50s. His empirical research into the sexual behaviour of human beings helped to demolish a great deal of hostility based on ignorance. Yet the hostility remains today in Australia and the world.

In the year past, Australia has witnessed hostility towards its LGBTIQ minority. This has been evident in the delay in Parliamentary consideration of proposed legislation to remove discrimination (as 23 other countries have done) in the matter of legal relationship recognition. It has also witnessed anger and bullying in opposition to the introduction of educational courses in schools to help reduce the toll of prejudice and discrimination against young people on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Sadly, recent months have seen suicide amongst Australian school students because of bullying at school. What should be a nurturing and safe environment is turned into one of hostility and danger. Sound research will help us to overcome these obstacles. Education will protect the human rights of every schoolchild.

Also in the year past, the international community had to face a test. The Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva established a mandate for an Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. However, a group of nations has attempted to stop action on that resolution. In November 2016, a vote in the UN General Assembly rejected the proposed stop order. But it was a close-run thing. The vote was 84 countries for the continuance of the mandate; 77 against; and 17 abstentions. Further attempts may be taken to pursue this hostility. This is all the more surprising because the main focus of the mandate is to address violence against LGBTIQ people globally. How can such violence not be the proper subject of investigation, report and action?

Progress will be made on the basis of scientific research and empirical information. Our Research Centre contributes to this research and helps to spread the information so that sound judgements can be made and good policies implemented. The research goes beyond the issues of the LGBTIQ community and is concerned with sex and health in all sections of the community. This is why I am proud to be an Ambassador for the Centre. I congratulate its staff, partners and supporters. We will not alone overcome centuries of fear and ignorance. But we will contribute to this end and not be deflected."

Michael Kirby

Distinguished Ambassador of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.