Coming out cost me a job
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide, abuse, addiction, grief, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you’re not alone. Help is available:
• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au
Christine spent her early career hiding her sexuality while building a life as a mental health clinician, nursing in hospitals and communities across Australia. In her twenties, she survived a suicide attempt after her father’s death, trauma and substance abuse she kept secret for years. Finding Qigong in 1997 became her turning point; three years of practice helped her process grief and anger she had refused to acknowledge. She eventually came out publicly, experiencing mostly family and community support, though a job application was denied when she disclosed her relationship with a woman. Now 66, Christine works in palliative and aged care, volunteers with the LEAP Lived Experience Advisory Panel, and travels to remote communities, bringing her hard-won wisdom to others navigating identity, loss, and belonging.
Christine Selman is a mental health nurse, Qigong practitioner, and lived experience advocate with nearly five decades of clinical work across Australia, regional, remote, and Indigenous communities. She came out as a gay woman later in life and now sits on the Silver Pride Lived Experience Panel for the LGBTIQ Health Organisation, supporting older LGBTIQ people in aged care and community settings.
In this Pride In Stories conversation with John Dwyer, Christine shares the story behind the moments below.
🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:
• Coming out cost her a job, but staying hidden costs your sense of self.
• Unprocessed trauma doesn’t disappear; Qigong gave her a way to release what she’d buried for decades.
• Her suicide attempt deepened rather than diminished her ability to help others find hope.
🕒 CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome and land acknowledgement
03:20 Coming out as a gay woman in her 30s
05:34 Realising her identity: connection to women
09:11 Her son’s journey accepting her coming out
14:21 Why she moved to the Northern Territory
20:45 Survived a suicide attempt in her twenties
22:00 Finding Qigong and releasing hidden trauma
27:34 LGBTQ people in remote Indigenous communities
29:17 Denied a job for being honest about being gay
32:33 Work with the Silver Pride Lived Experience Panel
35:17 Her life now: palliative care, travel, and purpose
37:31 Advice for allies supporting the LGBTIQ community
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Welcome.
We’re glad you found your way here.
Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.
Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object’s history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.
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