Town Hall shows its pride
Come Mardi Gras time, Oxford St is swathed in rainbow flags and accoutrements, and now the City of Sydney is considering extending that colourful arc down to the Town Hall.
Council will consider a proposal to have the rainbow flag fly above Town Hall throughout the Mardi Gras festival period.
The idea was put forward by openly gay councillor Phillip Black after visiting San Francisco last year for Pride Week. Black and fellow gay councillor Shayne Mallard took part in a flag-raising ceremony with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom at an event before the official launch of Pride Week.
The council’s Cultural and Community Services Committee has now recommended that, “to further acknowledge events of significance to the City’s GLBT resident and visitor population, the City of Sydney has the option to fly the rainbow flag at its civic buildings during the Mardi Gras Festival and at other times as relevant and suitable to the community events calendar. This could also include the annual Pride Week celebrations in June.”
The rainbow flag was created by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978 to celebrate GLBT Freedom Day. The flag consists of six symbolic colours: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and purple for spirit.
The motion will go to council on September 21.
This is one of the biggest tourist events in Sydney. You see many flags for other events. It is our turn to celebrate.
‘openly gay’? it still takes guts to be so. Here’s hopeing Centrlink don’t read the SSO, watch TV, listen to electric wirelesses. Blessings to Clover & our Councillors.
Nice idea but “openly gay” is an egregious term. How about we assume that anyone reported as gay in the SSO is open about it. Those rare creatures who choose to be closetted while havign their sexuality featured int he gay press can have the qualification “not openly gay” or even “secretly gay”.