Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Pride March

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (10:06): Last Sunday was a glorious sunny Melbourne summer’s day, a day made more glorious by the Pride March. I love marching each year with my lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse, intersex and queer comrades. People march for many reasons. I march to say, ‘I respect you, I see you, I hear you. You are my family, my friends, my colleagues and neighbours. Your fight is my fight’.

Make no mistake, there is still a fight for equality happening right now in Victoria. I was recently devastated to learn about a targeted bashing of members of the LGBTIQ+ community that happened in my electorate. The offenders used a fake identity to lure victims to a park in Ashwood where they physically assaulted and robbed them. Thankfully Victoria Police have made arrests in this matter. This appalling act was cowardly, and I am outraged for the victims. Every Victorian, without exception, deserves to be safe and supported and equal.

On Sunday the Minister for Equality launched Victoria’s first LGBTIQ+ strategy, a landmark 10-year plan to drive inclusion for LGBTIQ+ Victorians. The Andrews government has fought in this place and the other place to remove discrimination from legislation, and the Victorian Liberals have continued to oppose that important work. Now, without any self-awareness of their hypocrisy, they have proposed a fund, a legal service, for the LGBTIQ+ community to fight the very legal discrimination that they have defended.