Benjamin Oh has been a pioneer and leader in numerous organisations, initiatives, and projects focused on cross-cultural community development, human rights, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, LGBTIQA+ advocacy and racial justice. He is rooted in the Catholic tradition of the Christian faith, nurtured and supported by his family, with ecumenism and interfaith dialogue playing a central role in his spirituality and lived faith. Benjamin comes from a Malaysian Chinese Peranakan heritage.
Benjamin has spent the most part of his vocational life building partnerships, developing and implementing strategies within communities, institutions, organizations and leaders around Australia to highlight the dignity, human rights, health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ members within and beyond faith communities and institutions. Community and adult education play a central focus in his work in building bridges between different peoples that help each other come to an understanding of a shared humanity, and through this shared consciousness, help bring different communities together to advance causes of justice.
GLOBAL NETWORK
Benjamin has been an active organiser within his faith community for much of his adult life and has engaged in LGBTIQA+ community organising for over two decades. He was instrumental in founding the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC), which brings together LGBTIQA+-affirming Catholic ministries worldwide. He served as Secretary on its founding Steering Committee in 2015 and its inaugural Board in 2017. Alongside leaders such as Georgina Adhiambo (Kenya), Fernando Gonzalez (Chile), Eros Shaw (China), Chris Vella (Malta), Ruby Almeida (UK), Michael Brinkschroeder (Germany), Frank DeBernardo (USA), Andrea Rubera (Italy), Joleen Mataele (Tonga), Joseanne Peregine (Malta), and Jeff Stone (USA), Benjamin led the crafting GNRC’s foundational structure, mission, and direction through a global consultative process.
Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, Inaugural Assembly, Rome 2015
During his time as Secretary, he also chaired the GNRC Justice & Prophesy Committee, which advocates for LGBTIQA+ Catholics and addresses injustices they face within the Church and in the broader world. The committee has led significant initiatives, including campaigns for decriminalisation, raising awareness of LGBTIQA+ refugees and displaced persons, and highlighting intersex human rights—areas Benjamin continues to advocate for.
The work of GNRC-affiliated organisations has helped shift attitudes within Catholic communities worldwide, promoting greater pastoral sensitivity towards LGBTIQA+ people and their families, particularly in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, and globally. In 2023, Pope Francis publicly condemned the criminalisation of homosexuality, calling it unjust. The following year, GNRC leaders were invited to meet with him—marking the first time an international Catholic LGBTIQA+ body had been granted a public audience with a Pontiff.
ASIA PACIFIC
In 2015, Benjamin co-founded the Asia Pacific Rainbow Catholics Network (APARC) with Eros Shaw to address the unique challenges faced by LGBTIQA+ people in a region known for its rich cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity—and for ongoing violence, criminalisation, and even the threat of capital punishment. APARC has helped support communities by offering pastoral care to its community members and provided a safe space and platform to share resources and advocate together in an otherwise challenging region.
In 2017, under Shaw's editorial leadership, the first anthology of LGBTIQA+ Catholic stories from Chinese-speaking communities was published, followed by an English edition Blessed Are Those Who Mourn in 2022, both intended as pastoral and advocacy resources for faith communities.
AUSTRALIA
In 2013, Benjamin founded the Rainbow Catholics Interagency for Ministry in Australia to bring together LGBTIQA+-affirming Catholic leaders and ministries. He recognised that many LGBTIQA+ Catholics were caught in a "domestically violent" relationship with parts of the institutional Church—historically hostile to their experiences, dignity and rights. Drawing from his previous advocacy experience working at the Anti-Violence Project (AVP, ACON) and borrowing the “interagency” model that fostered collaboration between its divergent interest groups, Rainbow Catholics Interagency Australia supports communities, pastors, parishes, institutions, dioceses and other parts of the Australian Catholic Church to build a safer church and society where LGBTIQA+ Catholics and their families are able to flourish with dignity and respect. The Interagency works towards ending homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, asexual, queerphobia and intersex erasure in the church and Catholic communities where discrimination, exclusion and prejudice occurs.
GRASSROOTS
From 2009 to 2016, Benjamin served on the committee of Acceptance Sydney, supporting LGBTIQA+ Catholic pastoral ministries and community formation. During this time, he also served on the parish pastoral council at St Joseph’s Parish Church in Newtown, where Acceptance Sydney relocated in 2009, thanks to the leadership of Fr Peter Maher and the parish community.
In 2015, Benjamin founded Australian Catholics for Equality (ACfE), a platform led by young Australian Catholics aiming to offer an affirmative voice amid hostile religious and political debates such as Safe Schools Program, Religious Freedom legislation and Marriage Equality campaign etc that affected LGBTIQA+ peoples. ACfE continues as a platform for Catholic-led human rights and social justice work in support of LGBTIQA+ and marginalised communities.
ECUMENICAL
In 2016, Benjamin founded Equal Voices with the support of Peter Maher and Natalie Cooper. This national ecumenical movement unites LGBTIQA+ Christians and their allies across denominations to build affirming communities. Equal Voices led the key role in the Australian Christians for Marriage Equality campaign, mobilising Christian support for the "Yes" vote during the national plebiscite. Benjamin led outreach to Catholic and Asian Australian communities during the campaign, which, despite being deeply polarising, succeeded in achieving civil marriage equality. Equal Voices continues to speak with a powerful ecumenical voice on behalf of the Christian community, in promoting the flourishing of LGBTIQA+ people in churches all around Australia.
Equal Voices launch, with former High Court Judge Michael Kirby and National Council of Churches in Australia General Secretary Sister Elizabeth Delaney
In recognition of his “long-standing service to LGBTIQA+ Catholic communities in Australia and overseas”, Acceptance Australia conferred him with the Life Membership Award during its 50th anniversary, one of only five individuals ever to receive this honour.
Benjamin has also worked to elevate the voices of LGBTIQA+ people from culturally and religiously minoritised communities in both faith and secular arenas. Recognising that these voices are often marginalised, he has persistently advocated for inclusive policies and legislation to support their wellbeing.
MINISTRY JOURNEY
His LGBTIQA+ ministry journey really began when he was Vice-Chaplain at his university college in 2001. He was deeply inspired by the transgender activists and sex workers he met—whose resilience and commitment to community and justice transformed his understanding of advocacy. This experience alongside his role as Vice-Chaplain underscored the importance of safe pastoral spaces for all marginalised individuals. In 2005, his meeting with Sr Jeannine Gramick—then under Vatican censure for her ministry to LGBTIQA+ Catholics—further ignited his mission.
In 2012, as he prepared to launch the Interagency, he and Fr Peter Maher helped initiate with other leading Catholic reform and renewal organisations what became the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (ACCCR). At the time, LGBTIQA+ justice were largely absent from the reform agenda. Benjamin led an internal education campaign to bring attention to these injustices—work that continues to influence ACCCR’s efforts until today. With his organizing, the interagency alongside ACCCR organizations helped raise awareness of the injustices faced by LGBTIQA+ people in both religious and secular settings in Australia and around the world. During the discerning period of the Australian Catholic Church’s Plenary Council as well as the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, Benjamin led and coordinated the response for LGBTIQA+ Catholics, their families and supporters.
INTERSECTIONAL ADVOCACY
Whilst he was working at the AVP, together with Moo Baulch and Robert Knapman, the team campaigned for raising awareness and responded to discrimination, violence and abuse faced by LGBTIQ+ people in the state of New South Wales. The experience at the AVP supporting victims of violence and abuse profoundly shifted his focus on the needs of racialized persons in the LGBTIQA+ community, including those who are in minoritised cultural, migrant and faith communities. In 2013, Benjamin and his partner Nam spoke publicly about their relationship on national television during the marriage equality campaign. The backlash—including death threats and harassment—prompted him to intensify his advocacy. He joined the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby Committee and co-founded the Asian Australian Alliance and the Asian Australian Rainbow Alliance (AAuRA) to uplift LGBTIQA+ voices within Asian Australian communities.
In 2014, alongside Gávriel Ansara, Nur Wasame, Erin Chew, and David Barrow, he establish the GLBTIQA+ Interfaith and Intercultural Network (GIIN). GIIN united organisers from more than a dozen culturally minoritised and faith-based community organisations to address issues such as racism, religious discrimination, and the plight of LGBTIQA+ asylum seekers.
Benjamin’s interfaith engagement began in 2002 at St. Francis Catholic Church in Melbourne, where he supported initiatives like the annual Catholic-Jewish Shoah Service and the MCCIA Good Friday Walk. In Sydney, he participated in the Marrickville Multifaith Roundtable and served for a decade on the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Jews and Muslims (ANDCJM) as a representative of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), working alongside leaders of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) and Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
HUMAN RIGHTS & SOCIAL JUSTICE
His commitment to human rights led him to take up the role of Researcher at the Sydney Peace Foundation in 2006-2007. In 2007, he was appointed to animate the social justice programme for the schools of the Dominican Sisters and coordinate the World Youth Day social justice gathering for the Dominican Order in Sydney. In 2008, he joined Palms Australia, Australia’s oldest lay-led Catholic international aid and development agency coordinating its Community Education and Outreach programme to defend human rights through the alleviation of poverty and skills transfer. In 2011, he was elected as the Catholic organisation's President and Chair of the Board of Director, serving alongside Executive Director Roger O’Halloran until 2014. In 2021, Benjamin was awarded with the Roy Boylan Award, the highest honour of Palms Australia, with the founder’s award citation recognising his “long-term commitment to justice and peace in Australia and abroad, modelling solidarity through long- term relationships of mutual sustainable development to build individual and organisational capacity.”
Benjamin Oh as President of Palms Australia, with Organisational Patrons: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (and current President of Timor-Leste) Jose Ramos Horta and Deason Gary Stone.
Over the years, Benjamin has taught and facilitated in various religious and non-religious settings on LGBTIQA+ human rights and realities. He was a Council Member of University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and taught on the subject of LGBTIQA+ human rights and justice as part of the of the Chuo University faculty of law and the University of Sydney Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies’ Human Rights law students exchange program.
He currently serves on various boards, including the LGBTIQA+ Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN) and the Australian GLBTIQA+ Multicultural Council (AGMC). In 2024, he was appointed to the NSW Government’s LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council by the Premier.
Benjamin resides in Sydney with his partner of over 20 years and their two children. He continues to advocate for those on the margins and is currently working on new projects focusing on de-escalating extremism and misunderstanding between communities.
‘LGBTIQ Refugees Are Welcome Here’, Benjamin Oh with his spouse, Nam Phan
(This biographical statement was edited by Professor Sr Pat Malone RSJ, PhD, with research support from various contributors, online resources, and interviews with Benjamin Oh. Sister Pat Malone served as President of Palms Australia (PALMS) prior to Benjamin Oh’s election to the role in 2011 and has continued to support and mentor him in his various leadership roles since his time with PALMS.)
Biography Date: May 2025