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.<\/p>\n
Cr Owen Sharkey said he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic it was flown for the first time,\u201d said Cr Sharkey. \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of those prouder moments in the life of a councillor.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s 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\u2019d done the right thing pushing for change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that moment I thought if we hadn\u2019t done this people would be asking why,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo or three staff members said to me, \u2018Look 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\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Following the raising of the flag Cr Sharkey said community have been vocal in thanking him for his involvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA tiny little thing like this, even though that area of our community still has so many challenges ahead of them, it\u2019s a tiny little brick wall knocked down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The occasion comes after the Shire\u2019s flag policy was changed late last year to include a community flagpole.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The policy eventually allowed for flags consistent with the Shire\u2019s values to be flown for between one and seven days at municipal offices beside the national and First Nations flags<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019d been pushing for the move for a long time, with the flag raised at the Civic Centre […]<\/p>\n