The OutLine Chat Support Service is a free peer support service offering rainbow-focused support to people throughout Aotearoa!
Who is this service for?
We’re here if you want to talk about rainbow identities and lives. We focus on topics around sexual orientation, gender identity and diverse sex characteristics, as well as rainbow people’s life experiences.
We welcome chats from people who are questioning their sexuality or gender identity, LGBTIQA+/rainbow people, their friends, whānau and colleagues, or professionals who work with rainbow people as clients or customers.
All chats and chatters are confidential and anonymous.
When we say rainbow, we mean people whose sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics are different from majority norms. We’re including people who identify with words like takatāpui, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transgender, queer, non-binary or fa’afafine, as well as people who don’t use specific words for their identity, people whose identity changes over time, and people who are still in the process of understanding their own identity.
What can we help with?
Our volunteers welcome your chat to discuss topics around sexual orientation, gender identity and diverse sex characteristics. They can help you find sources of trusted information, connection to community or peers, and medical or mental health services that welcome rainbow people.
Some of the topics people get in touch to chat about include family relationships, loneliness and isolation, sexuality and gender identity, sexual health, navigating gender-affirming healthcare and meeting people.
For people who want to chat about topics that are not related to rainbow identities and lives, please check the list of services at the bottom of this page that may better meet your needs.
How to access this service
Click on the Chat Support Service icon on this page to open up the Chat window. This will ask for your name, age, region, email address, and what has brought you to the Chat this evening and then enter you into the queue to chat with one of our trained rainbow volunteers! It’s free and confidential to chat.
We’re here every evening, 6pm-9pm.
If you require more immediate support, please refer to our resources pages or click here to access support immediately.
What if nobody is available to chat?
Our peer support services are provided by volunteers from our rainbow communities, meaning you can speak to someone without judgement, coming from a place of understanding and experience.
Because our chat service relies on volunteer capacity and availability, there are times when our volunteers are unavailable or are busy helping someone else. If you’ve started a chat but haven’t received a response, thanks for reaching out. We’re sorry we can’t be there for you in this moment, and are working on ways to improve this.
If you like, try calling us on our free phone line (0800 688 5463) between 6pm to 9pm every day, where you can speak to a volunteer or leave a voicemail message. You can also try chatting again another night.
If you need more immediate support, please see this list of support services. In an emergency phone 111, if anyone is in immediate physical danger.
Other Help
OutLine is not a crisis service so if you’re experiencing significant mental distress, it may be more helpful for you to call or text 1737 instead. They have peer support workers and trained counsellors who can provide mental health crisis support.
Other services that might be helpful when experiencing mental distress or crisis:
Lifeline 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP)
Youthline 0800 376 633, free text 234, email [email protected] or online chat
Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
If you’re experiencing suicidal ideation, planning and/or intending to carry out significant harm to yourself please contact your local DHB Mental Health Crisis Assessment Team.
If you’re at immediate risk or in danger, call 111.
Privacy and Feedback
We understand that privacy is important to you. It’s also important to us. So, we’ve set out how we collect, use, protect and share your information in a way that we hope you find informative, clear and easy to understand here.
When you enter your details into the fields of the chat widget, those details are moved into a secure form and disappear from the software once the chat is finished. We collect region information and the reason you’re messaging because it’s helpful when reviewing our service provision and applying for funding – and we need this to continue providing appropriate support services!
So that we can continue to provide the best possible support and resources to our rainbow communities, we would love to receive your feedback on our chat support services. This feedback can be anything from experiences you’ve had using our chat support services, or suggestions for improvements that would make you more likely to utilise the service. Follow the JotForm link here to complete our short survey.