News

Yarra City Council adopts a new long-term policy to strengthen support for its LGBTIQA+ communities.

18 November 2025

Closing the loop on a pink background with colourful speech bubbles

Project background

At Yarra, we believe that everyone has the right to freely express themselves and to feel safe in doing so. We are a proud LGBTIQA+ precinct of Melbourne where 15% of residents identify as LGBTIQA+.

In 2024, we reviewed the existing LGBTIQA+ strategy 2021-2024, together with Yarra's Rainbow Advisory Committee. This included an audit of our programs and actions as well as an assessment of ongoing and emerging community needs.

At the beginning of 2025 you shared your ideas for our new Rainbow Policy. We asked you to provide your feedback on the four priority areas we identified to help guide our priorities and actions moving forward.

They are:

During the first stage of the consultation, we asked for your ideas on what should be included in the new Rainbow Policy. We used this feedback to inform the draft Policy which was available to be reviewed during the second stage of consultation.

What did we ask in Stage 2?

During the second stage we asked you to let us know if you had any suggestions on ways we could improve these four priority areas and you also had the opportunity to provide comments on the draft Policy.

Who did we hear from?

What we heard and how it influenced the final plan?

There were 30 pieces of feedback received overall which highlighted the following points:

  • Building or establishing a Pride Centre in the north of the city
  • Specific actions suggested around more gender-neutral change rooms at Leisure Centres
  • Recognition of Rainbow families and more programs targeted specifically at this cohort.

What happens next?

At the Council Meeting on Tuesday 11 November 2025, Council adopted the Rainbow Policy. This document outlines how we will continue to support our LGBTIQA+ community by ensuring the City of Yarra is a place where heritage and celebration are honoured, inclusion and participation are actively promoted, safer spaces are created for all, and wellbeing is embedded across our services and community life.

Visit the project page

To read more about this consultation please visit the Rainbow Policy page on Your Say Yarra.

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