Rainbow flag raised in Sydney’s Taylor Square

Rainbow flag raised in Sydney’s Taylor Square

A GIANT rainbow flag has been raised in Sydney’s Taylor Square, flying six storeys above Oxford St to honour the importance of the area’s LGBTI community.

The 6.4m by 3.2m flag, which was erected quietly earlier today, is a precursor to the installation of permanent artwork in the area in 2018, in time for the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

When the DA was submitted, it was expected to cost $52,000 to erect the flag.

Sydney Council had unanimously endorsed the flag’s installation after a development application for it was submitted back in July.

Labor councillor Linda Scott and Liberal councillor Christine Forster had criticised the long time frame of the proposed 2018 artwork, and it was Forster who proposed that a rainbow flag be displayed at the heart of Sydney’s traditional LGBTI neighbourhood in the meantime.

Scott, with the support of Sydney federal Labor MP Tanya Plibersek and the DIY Rainbow movement, had also initially proposed the idea if a flag to council in May 2013 as a compromise for the loss of the rainbow crossing, but it was voted down.

Scott also told the Star Observer that the idea of the rainbow flag was also voted down by council about in 2005 when Labor councillor Verity Firth moved a motion on it.

Despite this, Scott was pleased with the outcome of the newly-installed flag and Lord Mayor Clover Moore said it would help reinforce the area’s LGBTI culture and history.

“Sydney has the largest GLBTI community in Australia and while we develop a permanent public artwork this flag will say loud and clear that Sydney is a safe, inclusive city for everyone,” she said in a statement.

“Since the removal of the much-loved rainbow crossing at Taylor Square, many people have expressed a desire for a significant artwork to celebrate Sydney’s GLBTI community.”

Moore added she wanted the artwork installation due in 2018 to “bring as much colour and joy” to Oxford St as the rainbow crossing that bisected the street around Mardi Gras season in 2013.

“It should serve as a landmark, a destination and a meeting place – something people will want to photograph and share with others,” she said.

“Most importantly, it should celebrate what has been achieved and remind us how much there is still to do.”

For the past five years, a rainbow flag has been raised above Sydney Town Hall to mark the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Pride Week in June.

Council has also stated that it has boosted its annual Mardi Gras sponsorship by almost 20 per cent, to more than $1.5 million over three years.

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86 responses to “Rainbow flag raised in Sydney’s Taylor Square”

  1. @John Connor – In sometime in the future, if straight people ever have to be as visible as our community has had to be to get basic human rights then they can have their own pride flag. Until that day, persecuted minorities should feel proud to celebrate their identity, especially if they are still treated with inequality under the law. I love the flag and wish we still had a rainbow crossing.

  2. It’s cool, but you don’t see heterosexual flags or crossings in the streets, why do we need gay ones? I think it just creates more segregation rather than acceptance and inclusion.

    • We don’t need to be accepted, we already are. Homosexuals still need to be accepted the same way. It’s called awareness. This is a start.

    • What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you say “Oxford Street”? Everyone knows that Oxford Street was/is the social gathering place for homosexually oriented people. A flag is not going to change that..

    • At the moment in Australia, except in a very few places, LGBTI people are merely tolerated. We need to move beyond that grudging minimum called tolerance, through open acceptance, to outright celebration of our lives and relationships. A flag is just tokenism. When gay couples can openly and unselfconsciously walk down the street holding hands, kiss in the park, fly the rainbow flag over their home if they want to, in every town in the country, then we can talk about dismantling the very very few safe spaces we have.

    • In that case, why don’t they erect flags or paint crossings in country towns or in suburbs where the tolerance and acceptance levels are low?

  3. About time I’ve lived here 30years I hope this brings people together the gay community is rather jadded we need as much recognition as possible

  4. Good on you city of Sydney. I think it’s great to have a memorial to remind us that Sydney used to have a vibrant party scene that you killed with your lock outs. RIP the party capital of Australia.

  5. 6 stories up? Set up a video camera to capture all the people walking into each other or into poles etc while looking up at it. Could make some money on Funniest Home Videos.

  6. Well it good to have it but Sydney nightlife has been destroyed by state gov lock out laws. I now go anywhere but Sydney.
    Melb is now Australia City of nightlife.

  7. Removing lockout laws in Oxford street is essential. The NSW state governmet did it not the council. Now its even more dangerous between 1:30 am and 5am than before with hundreds of people having no where to go. No trains and no way to get home

  8. I think they should have done the awnings along oxford st and tailor square with colour and life, plus with the garden patch there maybe have done a memorial garden with loads of colour would have been much better. All the flag will do is a big fat nothing the strip has gone back to being just as bad as the early eighties with haters. They will vandalise it graffiti it and council then will eventually pull it down let along up keep it. Make the most of what you have to play with and put a bit of common sense to it. Sorry if I offend just an opinion where to me that is sort of like we throw this in and you all will shut up and go away for awhile.

    • No, because the lock out laws only affect a tiny (and usually inebriated or drug addled ) proportion of our community. The 97.3% not affected by the laws, really like the flag just where it is.

    • We have so many conservative politiically-connected gay people now, who are never going to criticise what the NSW Libs have done to Oxford St (Alan Jones, Tim Wilson, Christine Forster, many of Turnbull’s supporters). And from the conservatives point of view, if all those wonderful supportive gay people have no problem with the life of Oxford St being killed off, then the rest of us are just being difficult.

  9. We are remembering history. Oxford St is far from what it was in the 70’s and 80’s. We as a peole are vastly different in our patterns of life and the way we socialize. I will return one day soon and stop and reflect on how things used to be. At the same time I will hope for a new burst of energy for what was my local stomping ground.

  10. Pat yourself on the back City of Sydney. Sorry if I don’t fall over in excitement.. it’s a flag.. and a flag that should have just been there years ago anyways. Progressive as always. Guess I am glad we got there (where ever that is) in the end.

  11. Pretty pathetic, really. Where are the rainbow street signs, the rainbow sidewalks and crossings, the rainbow arches over the main entry points, and all the other paraphernalia that British and American cities can muster for their gay towns? And all Sydney – with its worldwide reputation as a gay Mecca – can manage is a bit of cloth?