Rainbow flag flies over Shire offices

FOR the first time in history a progress pride flag was officially flown on Golden Plains Shire property last week to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, or IDAHOBIT Day.

Cr Owen Sharkey said he’d been pushing for the move for a long time, with the flag raised at the Civic Centre in Bannockburn alongside the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags.

“It’s fantastic it was flown for the first time,” said Cr Sharkey. “It’s probably one of those prouder moments in the life of a councillor.”

This year’s IDAHOBIT Day, which took place last Wednesday, saw all 72 Victorian municipalities raise the progress pride flag and Cr Sharkey said that statistic really cemented that he’d done the right thing pushing for change.

“In that moment I thought if we hadn’t done this people would be asking why,” he said.

“Two or three staff members said to me, ‘Look Owen this is our workplace, and we get the opportunity to wear badges and do things inside the building but to have something outside means a lot’,” he said.

Following the raising of the flag Cr Sharkey said community have been vocal in thanking him for his involvement.

“I put up a Facebook post expressing my gratitude and I probably received a dozen text messages from people who have written to me privately to say hey, that actually means a lot to me,” he said.

“A tiny little thing like this, even though that area of our community still has so many challenges ahead of them, it’s a tiny little brick wall knocked down.”

The occasion comes after the Shire’s flag policy was changed late last year to include a community flagpole.

At the time some councillors sought to delay a review of the policy until next council term, however Cr Sharkey pushed for it to be done now.

The policy eventually allowed for flags consistent with the Shire’s values to be flown for between one and seven days at municipal offices beside the national and First Nations flags