After eight years of advocacy and more than a year of community engagement, Geelong council has adopted its inaugural Rainbow Action Plan 2025-29.
The plan is constructed to combat the higher levels of exclusion and discrimination and heightened risk of hate crimes, violence and harassment experienced by the more than 34,000 LGBTQIA+ people in Geelong and promote the representation and visibility of the community and its members.
Drawing on the Victorian government’s Rainbow ready roadmap, the plan provides 20 broad actions structured under four general principles; understanding, inclusion, visibility and safety.
The plan also includes key performance indicators for each action, with a commitment to monitor, measure and report on its implementation.
Charlemont Ward councillor Emma Sinclair, who presented the report at the council meeting this week, said the plan “responds to a real community need”.
“We know that close to 10 per cent of Geelong’s adult population identifies as part of the Rainbow community, yet we still see really high reports of people feeling unsafe in public spaces or of experience being treated differently because they present in a different way,” Cr Sinclair said.
“We often talk about people all being equal under the law (but) it’s only in the last 10 years we’ve had marriage equality and that was federal legislation discriminating against a group.
“The impact of that discrimination doesn’t just go away within five or six years. It is material and ongoing, that sort of trauma, so that’s why plans like this matter so much.”
Visit yoursay.geelongaustralia.com.au/rainbow-ready to view the Rainbow Action Plan 2025-29.
