Where’s The Straight Flag? Controversy Over Yarra City Council’s Inclusive Flag Policy

Out gay President of a citizen’s group and former Angry Victorians Party candidate has asked what about “straight pride flag” after Melbourne’s Yarra Council announced its plans to fly around 20 flags through the year, including LGBTQI flags. 

Yarra Council, which has a diverse group of councillors that includes out LGBTQI councillors, recently updated its flag policy. Melbourne’s gaybourhood Smith Street is within Yarra City Council limits. 

The council said the new policy demonstrated its “commitment to diversity and inclusivity.” 

“Our flags represent our community’s varied history, identity and diversity,” the council said in a statement published on its website on Tuesday. “Almost 30% of our community speak a language other than English at home, and 10% of our community identify as LGBTIQA+.”

According to the council’s new policy, around 20 different flags would be flown on various days of significance through the year. This included the Aromantic, Asexual, Bisexual, Intersex, Intersex Inclusive Pride, Lesbian Pride, Non Binary Pride, Pansexual Pride and the Transgender flags. 

“Yarra remains committed to flying flags which align with Council’s values and policies. The flying of flags symbolise identity, ensure people in our community feel heard and seen, promote respect and inclusion for all, raise awareness and create a sense of community pride,” the council said. 

Straight Pride Flag?

Council Watch President Dean Hurlston slammed the council’s flag policy on Peta Credlin’s show on Sky News. Hurlston asked where the “straight pride flag” was in the flag policy. 

“A lot of Victorians would like to see is where is the straight pride flag?” Hurslton told Credlin.  “Somehow straight people get lost in all of that, and as a gay man I just don’t understand any of this.” 

Hurlston criticised the council for its decision to remove the Australian flag on certain days, including on Australia Day, the anniversary of the release of National Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and on Sorry Day.

“The Australian flag is the one flag that we all want to actually stay flying, and for Yarra to take it down and replace it regularly and then also to fly 20 other flags is just more evidence that councils, council officers, CEOs and executives are now the true woke brigade,” Hurlston railed. 

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