By Georgina Poort (she/her) | GV Pride Vice President
Pride Month is here, and we are keen to bring pride and visibility to the GV. With a variety of events and visible celebrations to enjoy this month, we are sure to see some rainbows popping out from behind the clouds most days this June. Pride Month is heavily celebrated in the northern hemisphere and has seen a rise in popularity within Australia in recent years that that has now extended to regional and rural areas.
This month you can enjoy …
❤ Pride flags are up around town!
With the support of Greater Shepparton City Council’s LGBTIQA+ Advisory Committee, Council will be flying pride flags at the Shepparton Showgrounds and along St George’s Road this June. You can also see pride flags flying along Fryers Street at the GOTAFE CBD campus, as well as GV Water, and at the Queens Gardens (our much-loved OitO venue!). Pride flags create a much-needed sense of celebration and community visibility. The rainbows bring such joy when people see them, and to see more of them flying in the GV will be a very welcome site on the greyer days winter can offer us.
🧡 History Can Be Queer | Youth Event | June 5th
This event is back, this time for local queer young people! Here is a bit more information: Ever wondered what it’s like to be LGBTIQA+? What was it like 40 years ago, or 100 years ago? Are you curious to know why a pub called the Stonewall Inn is important? Do you know when the rainbow flag was first flown? Ever heard of a pink triangle? Now’s your opportunity to learn in a safe space with others. Together we will create a timeline of key moments in the lives of LGBTIQA+ people. This event is for young people aged 16-25 and will be held in the Shepparton CBD. Registrations are a must! (Head here for the finer details and to register: History Can Be Queer | Youth Event – Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org). Special thanks to our event volunteers Emma & Al!
💛 Latte with an LLO | June 7th
This free event is your opportunity to get to know LLO’s (LGBTIQA+ Liaison Officers) from the local Shepparton Police Station. Join Brooke Malane (she/her) & others for casual and informal chat over a cup of coffee or tea – share stories, make connections. Coffee is on us – yum! All you gotta do is show up to the GV Pride Hub. For more info head here: Latte with an LLO – Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org).
💚 GLOW Roller Disco | June 8th
GLOW Roller Disco is BACK – need we say more?! Bigger and better with free learn-to-skate sessions included in your ticket price, two timeslots, and lots of roller skating, disco party vibes and laughs to be had. We are bringing this event back to the Shepparton Showgrounds for easier access. Be sure to grab tickets ASAP (you guessed it, here is the link: Events from June 19 – June 30 – Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org).
💙 Our Queer History Museum Art Exhibition | The G.R.A.I.N. Store, Nathalia | June 19th – 29th
The next installation of this wonderful exhibition that debuted at our 2023 OUTintheOPEN Festival is checking into its last stop, the G.R.A.I.N. Store in Nathalia. Local, regional LGBTIQA+ young people worked with LGBTIQA+ elders to capture and showcase their lived histories at several queer cultural/arts events that were held between November 2023 and February 2024. As part of this, artworks and information banners were created to highlight ‘our’ queer history. The exhibition includes artwork, furniture, and installations, as well as written information on queer history. This entire exhibition was created and curated by Ruby (she/they) who recently won Greater Shepparton City Council’s Youth Volunteer Award 2024 for their work volunteering for GV Pride and OITO Festival – congratulations Ruby!! Find the full details here: Our Queer History Museum | Art Exhibition – Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org).
💜 Pride Month Brunch | June 30th
We know just how much our community loves food and art – so we have combined the two as the perfect way to wrap up Pride Month. Join our GV Pride President, Deb (she/her) for a Pride Month Brunch at Elsewhere at SAM and a special guided tour to the Ryan McGinley ‘Yearbook’ Exhibition, now on at SAM. Please be sure to book as it’s important that we can ensure table bookings and RSVP numbers, you can do that here: Pride Month Brunch – Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org).
What is this Yearbook exhibition you speak of? Here is some information for you, more on the SAM website, linked at the bottom.
“An ever-evolving project, YEARBOOK is a large-scale photographic installation consisting of over seven hundred studio portraits of musicians, artists, and creatives living and working in New York. A joyful celebration of the diversity of the human body, each photograph in YEARBOOK features its subject posing against vibrant candy-coloured backgrounds, appearing like fashion or rock band promotional posters. Plastered over every available millimeter of the gallery walls, the installation envelops the visitor. Each individual image is a unique portrait that grants the viewer access to a delicate, once-private moment between the photographer and sitter. First presented in 2008, YEARBOOK has featured in several in major public institutions across Japan, Denmark, Korea, and Spain.” – Ryan McGinley: YEARBOOK – Shepparton Art Museum.
🖤 🤎 ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜
With plenty to keep your rainbow tank topped up to the brim all month long, we cannot wait to see you enjoy being LGBTIQA+ in the Goulburn Valley.
