Rainbow flag to be flown from Hobart Town Halll during TasPride for the first time
Image: The rainbow flag flying atop Randwick Town Hall in Sydney to celebrate Mardi Gras season. Hobart Town Hall is the latest council to join the growing trend.
A RAINBOW flag will be flown from Hobart Town Hall for the first time during the upcoming TasPride Festival.
Hobart City Council approved the motion during a recent committee meeting, agreeing to fly the flag for the duration of the festival.
[showads ad=MREC]TasPride president Bec Dorgelo said this gesture would mark a milestone for the festival, which started in 1992.
“The fact that the flag will fly high from the town hall means so much,” she told the Star Observer.
“For me, I think it’s one of the most important things I’ve been involved in as part of TasPride, and I’ve been on the committee for over four years.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has gotten super excited about it.”
Hobart will become the latest in a fast-growing list of local governments that have flown a rainbow flag wither during a pride festivals or IDAHOT day, including those in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Geelong and some suburban councils throughout Melbourne and Sydney.
The flag in Hobart will be raised during a special ceremony to launch the festival on October 31, where Tasmanian of the Year Rodney Croome will say a few words to mark the occasion.
“The Tasmanian LGBTI human rights movement began 27 years ago on the cobblestones of Salamanca Market when the Hobart City Council banned a gay law reform stall and defenders of the stall were arrested in defiance of that ban,” he told the Star Observer.
“It’s symbolic of how far the Tasmanian LGBTI community has come since then that the rainbow flag is now being raised over the Hobart Town Hall.”
Croome added that while rainbow flags have a positive impact wherever they are flown, Tasmania’s motion will be significant in its own right.
“Every rainbow flag raising is important, but this one will speak more than most to the possibility of real and profound change for the better,” he said.
The raising of the flag was made possible through the successful application for a community grant.
Dorgelo said the team at TasPride expressed the need to include the flag as a symbolic gesture.
“It has come about now because TasPride applied for and gained a community grant from the council, and made the case that it would be a great way to highlight the diversity of the Tasmanian population and show the inclusiveness of our capital,” she said.
TasPride runs every November, and provides the opportunity for the Tasmanian LGBTI community to come together and share their pride.
The 2015 TasPride Festival runs from November 6–15. The flag raising ceremony will be hosted on Saturday October 31.
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