Raising the flag for visibility and safety

LAST Friday was the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, or IDAHOBIT day, and community members gathered around the progress pride flag flying at Queen Victoria Square.

IDAHOBIT day is held on the anniversary of 17 May, 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the classification of diseases.

In 2016, Ballarat was the first Local Government Area in regional Victoria to raise the flag, and the municipality has done so every year since.

“I am an oral historian for the Australian Queer Archives, and I believe that we are actually creating history every time we do something like this,” said community member KL Joy.

“Eight years down the track the City of Ballarat is still raising the flag and I think what is happening in Ballarat is quite extraordinary.”

In 2020, when the community couldn’t gather due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual flag raising was held.

The City of Ballarat also committed to the development of an inclusion plan in 2021 and an advisory committee was set up.

The plan was adopted by council in October 2022 and is currently being implemented.

Last year was the first time all of Victoria’s local governments committed to flying the progress pride flag on 17 May after years of advocacy by the Victorian Pride Lobby.

Figures from 2014 indicated that more than nine per cent of Ballarat residents identified as LGBTIQA+ and this number is now believed to exceed 10 per cent.

“We have young people who are coming out as we speak, young people at school who are questioning themselves,” said KL.

“That flag gives permission to know that this is a safe place to question, to ask questions, to be who they are no matter what their identity is.

“I did not transition in Melbourne, I transitioned here in Ballarat at the age of 49 and I felt safe.”

KL said that they feel proud to live in the City of Ballarat, however, it is a place which was once unsafe for the queer community.

“I used to come up here in the 80s to visit my girlfriend who was at Ballarat University at the time, and we were walking in Camp Street, coming out of what is now known as Irish Murphy’s and we were cat called and abused,” said KL.

“Ballarat has a very strong history of homophobia and for me personally, it didn’t feel like a safe place.

“Thirteen years ago, someone asked, ‘why don’t you buy a house in Ballarat?’ and I thought you wouldn’t catch me dead here.

“Eight years ago, we moved to Ballarat, and I cannot think of a better place to be.”

KL thanked the City for the changes that have been made in recent years.

“I believe that the City of Ballarat are one of the forerunners in what regional Victoria can do for the community,” they said.

“When the City of Ballarat have something they want to do, they are consulting us.

“As a community, we feel represented in the City of Ballarat.”