Decision details

Moved by Councillor Worling, seconded by Councillor Kok –

It is resolved that:

(A)       Council note:

(i)         the City of Sydney is home to a large and diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQA+) community;

(ii)        the City of Sydney’s 2018 Community Wellbeing Survey indicated that 21.3 per cent identified as LGBTIQA+, the highest population of LGBTIQA+ people in Australia;

(iii)       the Oxford Street LGBTIQA+ social and cultural place strategy, adopted by Council in October 2022, is the overarching strategy that currently guides the City’s work in the precinct to support the LGBTIQA+ community. One of its five priority areas is to increase visibility and reflect the identity of the LGBTIQA+ community across the Oxford Street Precinct;

(iv)       the City of Sydney currently has two permanent, public pride flag artworks: one rainbow crossing at the corner of Bourke and Campbell Streets, at Taylor Square south, and one 90-metre rainbow path crossing Equality Green at Prince Alfred Park. Both artworks serve to promote the City’s ethos as a City for All, and are a proud celebration of the city’s LGBTIQA+ communities;

(v)        San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flag for the 1978 San Francisco Freedom Day Parade. It is widely recognised as the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities;

(vi)       rainbow crossings, meanwhile, were first installed in West Hollywood in 2012 to promote Gay Pride Month. There have been multiple rainbow crossings instigated around the world since - everywhere from San Francisco to Adelaide, Tel Aviv to London;

(vii)      the City’s current rainbow crossings feature Baker’s six-coloured Rainbow design (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet);

(viii)    in September 2021, a Lord Mayoral Minute proposed that the City use the Progress Pride Flag to visually celebrate the gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, queer, intersex and sexually and gender diverse communities. The Progress Pride Flag includes a chevron (a V shaped element) comprising black and brown for Indigenous people and people of colour, and white, pink and blue, to represent trans, nonbinary and gender diverse people;

(ix)       Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras adopted the Progress Pride Flag instead of the Rainbow Flag during the Mardi Gras Festival 2021, and the City of Sydney resolved to do the same going forward. The Progress Flag was designed by non-binary artist and graphic designer Daniel Quasar in 2018;

(x)        the City of Sydney is committed to the ongoing visibility, diversity and inclusion of LGBTIQA+ communities. Action 7.3 of the Oxford Street LGBTIQA+ social and cultural place strategy committed us to: Refresh the Rainbow Crossing at Taylor Square. This action was completed for Sydney World Pride;

(xi)       Action 7.11 of the strategy commits the City to: Explore opportunities for additional rainbow crossings throughout the Precinct; and

(xii)      the City understands that visibility and inclusion are key to a vibrant and safe City, and is committed to elevating and celebrating all LGBTIQA+ residents and visitors; and

(B)       the Chief Executive Officer be requested to:

(i)         investigate updating the City’s existing public pride flag artworks (Bourke Street and Prince Alfred Park) to Progress Pride Flag designs, to better represent the diversity of the LGBTIQA+ community;

(ii)        investigate additional locations and opportunities for new pride crossings in the City of Sydney, utilising the Progress Pride Flag design; and

(iii)       report back via the CEO Update on potential locations, a timeline and budget for this schedule of work.

Carried unanimously.

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