By Angela Hryc – June 19, 2017

The LGBT community is a term used to define the group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It is reinforced through various support groups, organisations and advocates, who all unite and join together to support, pride, equality, diversity, individuality and sexuality. The goal and the aim of the LGBT community is to provide a voice and a safe environment to those people who may experience isolation, shame or humiliation from their family, friends, peers, as well as the rest of society.

The LGBT community, also known as the gay community, is widely recognised for its symbols, signs and the colours of the rainbow. It is extremely common to see rainbow flags at a LGBT organisation or event, along with the triangle symbol to represent the gay community and other gender symbols such as the white ribbon for gay-teen suicide awareness.

There are a number of LGBT and gay pride annual festivals and events hosted in Australia including the renowned Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which is held every year between February and March.  Established in 1979, the Sydney Mardi Gras is one of the biggest pride festivals in the world and consists of a number of events such as Mardi Gras Fair Day, alongside the major Mardi Gras street parade and dance party. Other popular LGBT festivals and events include:

• Melbourne’s Pride March (January)
• ChillOut Festival held in Daylesford – the gay capital of Victoria (March)
• Adelaide Fringe Festival (March)
• Brisbane’s Big Gay Day (March)

The LGBT community in Australia is supported by a number of organisations, some of which are listed below:

• Black Rainbow
• Coming Out Australia
• Freedom2B
• Genderqueer Australia
• GLOBE
• Metropolitan Community Church
• Minus18
• QLife Australia

Although the Australian LGBT community are widely supported, they still continue to fight for marriage equality, known as same-sex marriage. While the current Australian Government is choosing not to pass and recognise marriage equality, the Australian Human Rights Commission firmly believes that since the approval of the Marriage Act in 1961, the world is now a different place and that the “fundamental human rights principle of equality means that civil marriage should be available, without discrimination, to all couples, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity”.

The LGBT community is also getting continuous support from the establishment of The Equality Campaign, which is a national campaign fighting for all Australian citizens to allow them to be married, including same-sex couples. The aim of the campaign is to fight for marriage equality to be passed directly in Parliament, without the need for a plebiscite. According to statistics found on their website, two out of three Australians already support marriage equality and believe that everyone deserves to be treated equality by Australia’s marriage laws.

With the huge support from citizens, organisations, support groups and The Equality Campaign, the Australian LGBT community will continue to thrive and grow and hopefully feel like they belong to a society that accepts them for who they are.