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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternational Transgender Visibility Day marks an important global day for us to champion transgender and gender-diverse communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also important for us to note that gender-diverse community members make up a rich and important part of the broader Ballarat community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to also today reflect on what we can do better to acknowledge and support our trans and gender-diverse community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a council, we can take steps to make sure that our services, our policies, our programs, plans and our infrastructure are welcoming and safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are small but really important first steps in becoming a more inclusive city.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It also marked the first community event for Ballarat\u2019s newly-formed LGBTIQA+ advisory committee, with one of its nine members, Alex Bravo, also serving as guest speaker.<\/p>\n
Transgender resident Corey Bartlett said it was \u201cfantastic\u201d to see how much the community has achieved, but that more is still needed to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a good first step between council and the committee and hopefully it\u2019s only going to see more inclusive measures in place,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d particularly like to see health practitioners here that are educated in trans health care. Most people I know here can\u2019t access healthcare in Ballarat, they have to go to Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreviously, this was just a couple of people raising a flag whereas now there\u2019s 40 or 50 of us and hopefully it\u2019ll just keep growing year after year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a long, long way to go, but at least we\u2019ve started that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. \u201cInternational Transgender Visibility Day marks an […]<\/p>\n