Raising the standard for diversity

WHITE, pink and blue waved across the sky last week as the community gathered for a flag-raising ceremony in acknowledgment of Transgender Visibility Day.

The transgender flag flew at Queen Victoria Square and City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said the day provided an opportunity to recognise diversity.

“International Transgender Visibility Day marks an important global day for us to champion transgender and gender-diverse communities,” he said.

“It’s also important for us to note that gender-diverse community members make up a rich and important part of the broader Ballarat community.

“I just want to also today reflect on what we can do better to acknowledge and support our trans and gender-diverse community.

“As a council, we can take steps to make sure that our services, our policies, our programs, plans and our infrastructure are welcoming and safe.

“These are small but really important first steps in becoming a more inclusive city.”

The ceremony was followed by an afternoon tea and panel discussion at Ballarat Library, which included talks by artist Marce King, activist Charlotte Johnson and event organiser Jupiter Perrett.

It also marked the first community event for Ballarat’s newly-formed LGBTIQA+ advisory committee, with one of its nine members, Alex Bravo, also serving as guest speaker.

Transgender resident Corey Bartlett said it was “fantastic” to see how much the community has achieved, but that more is still needed to be done.

“This is a good first step between council and the committee and hopefully it’s only going to see more inclusive measures in place,” they said.

“I’d particularly like to see health practitioners here that are educated in trans health care. Most people I know here can’t access healthcare in Ballarat, they have to go to Melbourne.

“Previously, this was just a couple of people raising a flag whereas now there’s 40 or 50 of us and hopefully it’ll just keep growing year after year.

“There’s a long, long way to go, but at least we’ve started that journey.”