La Trobe University Bendigo campus marks Pride Week with rainbow flag raising

It was that history of adversity as well as the progress made so far that was celebrated La Trobe University Bendigo's local rainbow community and allies on Wednesday as the Philadelphia pride flag was raised.

The Philadelphia pride flag features additional stripes in brown and black to highlight the importance of including queer people of colour in the LGBTQIA+ community.

"We've actually been able to hold (these events) which is something we haven't been able to do for at least two or three years now," La Trobe LGBTQIA+ support counsellor Chris said.

"And I think that makes a huge difference for students to come in and see stuff that relates to them.

"So LGBTQIA+ students are now able to come in and actually have some interaction - I think that's a big difference."

Bendigo's head of campus Julie Rudner underlined the importance of acknowledging pride and La Trobe's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

"Last year, I talked about changes across my lifetime and what it means to negotiate living regionally and working in the global academic environment while being a lesbian because it comes with its own sorts of problems," Dr Rudner said.

"Especially when you're supervising students from countries where being gay is illegal, and people go to prison or worse."

She said this year she wanted the focus to remain on political action, acknowledging the need for solidarity, vigilance and celebration.

"If we look over to the US right now, women are losing their reproductive rights and gay rights is next on the agenda if some of those states can push it that far," Dr Rudner said.

"That means our families, our friends, will be severely affected."

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Dr Rudner referenced the movie Pride, which was based on the true events where a group of lesbian and gay activists raised money for families affected by the miners' strike in the UK.

As a result of that fundraising - in the form of pressure from the National Union of Mineworkers - the British Labour Party later incorporated gay rights in its party program.

"(The main character's) view was, you can't just fight for your own community, you also have to fight for others," Dr Rudner said.

"And any sort of solidarity requires us to reach beyond our boundaries and it's not always comfortable.

"We need to work with others, through respect even if we don't always understand, because often working together in order to achieve basic rights is what leads to a greater sense of camaraderie.

"And it's really important that you celebrate and know that things continue to change and to highlight those moments when they do change to keep us motivated and positive, and be happy and optimistic for the future."

The Bendigo campus will play host to a number of fun activities this week including market stalls, panel discussions, a queer cinema pop up, live music, a trans and gender diverse clothing swap as well as temporary pride tattoos and face stamps and an array of yummy snacks.

Wear it Purple Day, which strives to foster supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people, is coming up on Friday, while there were rainbow milkshakes and other activities across the other campuses this week.

Paramedic student and member of the LGBTQIA+ group on campus Bee Baker said it was "pretty special" to see the raising of the flag in Bendigo.

"The university does a really good job at trying to get everyone included," she said.

"It's kind of cool to be able to represent the students and be that voice for other students that might not feel confident enough to be here or be that voice.

"There are a few other LGBTQIA+ paramedic students who aren't even 'out' publicly or anything.

"There still is that slight taboo around being gay, but I'm happy to support and be that voice for everyone else."

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Support services including headspace and YO Bendigo, City of Greater Bendigo's Youth Service for those 12-25 years old, were also on campus to offer support for students.

Headspace diversity worker Maree Dixon said it was great to show the queer community some support and to raise awareness about the issues queer people still face.

YO Bendigo stall assistant Teddy Transcendent said acceptance has come a long way but there are still struggles.

"LGBTQIA+ is an umbrella term, and there's lots of different identities and communities within that," they said.

"Some of those identities have a lot more trouble and struggles now than others just because some are more accepted or there's more knowledge about them.

"It's a part of you and a part of who you are, it just often takes a long time for people to recognize and be brave enough to be completely open and honest with everyone around them in their community about who they are."

The rest of the week has plenty more in store for La Trobe students and staff including performances from queer identifying folks and a Wear it Purple Day all-gender fashion parade and dance party at the Library on Friday night from 5pm to 7pm.

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