'We're all human': Queer and disabled mental health advocate on seeking self when we're 'forced to compete'

Giancarlo de Vera has come out thrice - first as queer, then as non-binary and, third as disabled. And in all his coming-out stories, what always rung true was that people are people and everyone has the right to live lives of their own making.

Giancarlo de Vera is currently the CEO of BEING – Mental Health Consumers, the NSW peak body for mental health consumers and people with lived experience of psychosocial disability, Credit: Supplied

Key Points

• Giancarlo de Vera was named 40 under 40 most influential Asian Australians in 2021.
• He is currently the CEO of BEING - Mental Health Consumers, the NSW peak body for mental health consumers and people with lived experience of psychosocial disability.
• For de Vera, the basis of a life well-lived is one wherein a person is true to self and lives it with kindness.

We're all human and respect for each other is something that is increasingly being forgotten in a world where it feels like we're being forced to compete...You don't need to live a life like that.

Giancarlo de Vera, CEO of BEING - Mental Health Consumers

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