IDAHOBIT 2023: Rainbow flag flies in Ballan in first for Moorabool Shire

The 'Philadelphia' version of the flag was briefly fully-raised at Ballan on Wednesday before it was lowered, according to flag protocols, to honour former Post and Telecommunications Minister Tony Staley, whose funeral was being held in Melbourne.

More than 50 members of the Moorabool LGBTIQA+ community and their supporters were there to witness an event that was almost three years in the making.

The day was especially poignant for Ballan's Ben Davison.

"I've got two mums. I love them dearly," the Moorabool Rainbow Allies member said.

"Mother's Day is always an expensive date on my calendar.

"We grew up around the Ballarat area and Ballan - we moved around a lot - and 30 years ago it was very different.

"People did throw things at us in the street. People did poison our pets. People did break into our home."

Mr Davison's face dropped when he described finding his cat hanging in a tree - and homophobic language scrawled over the walls of his home as a child.

He spoke of living in a town west of Ballarat where school-parents at a meeting objected to his non-biological mother helping on a camp.

Mr Davison's teacher threatened to resign if she could not attend - and attend, she did.

"I'll never forget that teacher," he said.

"I was eight years old.

"Now, here we are standing together in the street as a community and the sky hasn't fallen; the dogs haven't turned into cats.

"In fact, there's been an amazing outpouring of love and support.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful step in the right direction to being a welcoming and diverse community.

"It's a huge moment for all of us who have experienced discrimination or hatred to have our local community come together and say 'we love and support each other' and there is no place for hatred and discrimination."

Mr Davison said the rainbow flag was a symbol of safety - and Moorabool's first flag-raising opened the door of acceptance to anyone seen as "different" for whatever reason.

"I think we have to accept that people are people," he said.

"That's regardless of who we love or how we worship.

"We are all people.

"There really is an ability to find commonality amongst people of all sorts of beliefs, genders, orientations and religions. Everybody here at this event today, for example, lives in the Moorabool Shire.

"It doesn't take that much to find the things we have in common.

"I think if we focus on what we have in common, we can use that to build the foundation of understanding.

"It means we can build really strong communities."

Several councillors who had previously voted against the rainbow flag policy were also at the first flag-raising.

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