“We saw symbols of hate on the steps of the parliament … We thought it was the right thing to do to have some symbols of love,respect,inclusion and safety now at the front of the centre of government,” Andrews said on Wednesday.
The blue,pink and white flag now flies next to two progress pride flags and a rainbow pride flag on four previously vacant flagpoles. The Australian,Victorian,Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags remain permanently flying on the government building,just down from Parliament House on Spring Street.
Andrews said the trans flag will fly at Treasury Place until March 31,the International Transgender Day of Visibility. The progress pride flag will remain a permanent fixture,while the well-known rainbow pride flag will be raised on special occasions,such asPride Month,he said.
Austin Fabry-Jenkins,co-convener of the Victorian Pride Lobby,says the pink and blue colours of the trans flag reference the traditional gendered colours often assigned to women and men.
“The blue and pink is a reclaiming of those colours that are kind of ascribed to us against our will as children,and the white represents all gender identities beyond the binary. So,that would be nonbinary people,gender-fluid people and agender people,” they said.
US trans activist Monica Helms,who later founded the Transgender American Veterans Association,created the trans flag in 1999.