Frequently Asked Questions

Who are you?Online, I go by Emily Gwen. I chose not to share my legal name for privacy reasons. I am a nonbinary lesbian who lives in the greater Brisbane area of Queensland, Australia. In 2018, I offhandedly pitched an idea for a lesbian flag on tumblr as it was a popular point of discussion at the time. It snowballed from there.Before I fell onto hard times, I was at uni studying English with the goal of being an English teacher. Now I think I would like to work in disability advocacy and justice one day.Why don't you post pictures of yourself or post your real name?My abusive father has a history of tracking down where I live, spend my time, or work. I try to keep my online identity as separated from my legal identity as possible for that reason. Also, I don't want potential employers to stumble across me talking about personal details of my life, sexuality, or health.Why don't you get a job?I have had jobs. I have posted about these jobs. I have also applied for over 2000 jobs in the last two years alone. It's been getting harder lately - I've been diagnosed with chronic fatigue and have been seeking a diagnosis for some other symptoms that have eliminated some of my past sources of income.Why don't you ___ for money?Some side gigs I have or have had in the past: tutoring, lawn mowing and garden maintenance, flatpack furniture assembly, babysitting and nannying, housesitting, petsitting. I haven't been able to do some of the more physical ones in the last year or so due to my physical symptoms. I also don't feel comfortable babysitting and nannying anymore as my mental health is unpredictable and I worry how I may react in an emergency. I still tutor sometimes.Why don't you ask your family for money?My family was abusive. It got worse after I came out and eventually my father kicked me out onto street after a fight we had after my uncle used a homophobic slur and I got upset. It's what sent me into the Sisyphean nightmare known as poverty. In the years since, my father has frequently tracked me down and tried to intimidate me, force me into doing things for him, etc. The only family member I am in contact with is my lovely grandmother, who is a pensioner and also struggles.Why aren't you on unemployment payments?I am. They are well, well below the poverty line. In Australia, there is also a big problem with people on unemployment payments having them cut off or paused because of shitty job service providers. This has happened to me many times.What mental health problems do you have?This is complicated as I've had different psychiatrists diagnose me with different things. Ultimately the diagnosis doesn't matter, but the symptoms, I guess. But here we go:The main thing I struggle with is depression. I have been dealing witn major, chronic, treatment-resistant depression since I was a child. I also have PTSD and CPTSD from the abusive I grew up with and from some of the situations I have faced since getting kicked out. I have also experienced psychosis symptoms at various points, particularly delusions and paranoia. I have been diagnosed with a few things attempting to explain that.I used to self-harm but have not for a while.I have attempted suicide several times but luckily was unsuccessful (obviously, I guess).I have spent a lot of time in both public and private psychiatric wards. Some of these were good experiences that I credit with saving my life. Some were bad.Can you show us bank statements?I am gonna be honest here and say I would redact these so hard that not even I would think they proved anything. I don't feel comfortable showing my name, I don't feel comfortable showing where I shop, which suburbs I frequent. It would just be REDACTED REDACTED clinic REDACTED REDACTED aldi REDACTED REDACTED chemist REDACTED next to various numbers.Can you show us ___?I can show you some stuff. I'm not sure how useful it will be due to the issues above but I will add below some screenshots from my health insurance plan and my medicare history to prove I have health issues? I guess? I'll post at the bottom of the page."If you're anonymous how are we supposed to know you're not just a scammer?"I have debated this question a lot internally but at the end of the day, I have to protect my privacy first. Not only am I scared of being found by my father or potential employers, but I have also in the past received threats of rape, death, doxxing, etc. Combined with the paranoia I experience, I can't bring myself to reveal more than I have. If that means people won't donate, that's understandable. I don't think it's fair that people accuse me of being a scammer, though.Why haven't you addressed ___ post about you?I've noticed a lot of people seem to talk about me without me knowing it. Sometimes my friends will message me like "im sorry for what people are saying, stay strong" and I'll have no idea what they're talking about. I don't get message requests on twitter, I don't use any other social media much anymore, and to be honest the only replies and quotes of my posts I see are from people I follow because they show up on my feed. So yeah I'm probably just oblivious.Why don't you do __ instead of begging online?Asking for online donations is stressful, unpredictable, and opens you up to a lot of scrutiny and hate. It's also pretty humiliating. I would KILL to be in a situation where I didn't have to beg online. I HATE begging online. But the fact of the matter is that I have exhausted all over options and that the kindness of strangers on the internet is the only reason I'm alive right now.Did you steal the lesbian flag design?No. I have always said I based it off two existing flags - the butch flag and the pink lesbian flag. I combined them during a convo with a friend and posted about it because lots of people were pitching lesbian flag ideas. I had no idea it would resonate with people, but it did. It wasn't ever supposed to be seen by more than a handful of people.I believe another person, whose URL I have unfortunately forgotten, also suggested a similar flag. I didn't know about this when posting about my flag. Someone else also made a 5 stripe version. Back in 2018 when I made this flag I spoke to people about this and if anyone is accusing me of outright stealing from them, I haven't heard about it and they're probably lying.

Some evidence???
I guess???

current health insurance premium (looking to change this soon but also need to keep psych cover)

some recent medicare claims so you know i am actually getting healthcare

(19/12/25) current ACTIVE job applications on indeed, as an example of my job search. i use about five different websites altogether and archive them if the application has been viewed and i havent heard anything in a week

my recent payments from redbubble and threadless