Plans to reunite the rainbow community in Christchurch are underway. About 40 people attended a discussion forum held by The UpRising Trust at the Christchurch City Council last night to discuss the future of the LGBTQIA scene in Christchurch. Christchurch City Council's Strengthening Communities advisor Leanne Keenan said the forum was a fun way to discuss options to implement change to help the rainbow community reconnect after the earthquakes. “It's about getting the community back on their feet and reconnecting with each other,” Keenan said. The lack of venues in Christchurch for LGBTQIA people was a prevalent issue - however this was recognised as a holistic problem. Other highlighted issues for the rainbow community were the ageing population, a lack of visibility and awareness, stigma and violence alongside a reoccurring theme of feeling welcome within the gay community. To address these concerns discussions were made about building a network allowing better communication between people and groups within the gay community. Christchurch Pride committee member Jill Stevens said it had been hard to find out what people in the wider community wanted from Christchurch Pride Week earlier in the year. Support for gay themed events, changes to sex education, a central liaison group, unisex toilets, TED Talks or Pecha Kucha brainstorms were some of the ideas people thought needed change to ensure the gay community in Christchurch was widely visible and understood. Identifying leaders would be a part of this. Ideas from the evening showed a rainbow community information website would benefit the community – suggestions were made to implement this via the council website or through neighbourly.co.nz sharing news where everything to do with the LGBTQIA scene in Christchurch could be found in one place. An interlinking network would be a base to facilitate other planned changes to develop the rainbow community of Christchurch.
Credit: Hunter Calder – Journalism Student at Aoraki Polytechnic
First published: Friday, 20th June 2014 - 9:35pm