Australia's first purpose-built community hub for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) communities has officially opened in Fitzroy Street.
The Victorian Pride Centre (VPC) brings significant cultural, health, social and economic benefits, both to Fitzroy Street and Victoria.
The distinctive Centre provides purpose-built spaces for tenant organisations including the Monash Health Gender Clinic, StarHealth, Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council, Transgender Victoria, Switchboard, Australian Queer Archives, Minus18, Koorie Pride Victoria and the Star Observer and JOY Radio Station..
The clever design also allows the VPC to offer welcoming and visually stunning spaces to meet or be immersed in the arts, including a soon to be established cafe and bar, theatrette, and a Pride Gallery celebrating LGBTIQ+ creatives.
The arrival of the VPC is the latest chapter of St Kilda's long history of inclusion.
Queer Activism in Victoria was born in Acland Street in 1969, when the Daughters of Bilitis, later the Australian Lesbian Movement, was formed there. A little later, Seahorse Victoria, a support organisation for the transgender community was established in 1975 - also at a flat in Acland Street. After it grew too big for the flat, Seahorse often met at a café, right where the Pride Centre is now located.
In the 1990s, the then St Kilda Council took an important stand against ignorance and prejudice and supported the establishment of the Positive Living Centre - again in Acland Street - in the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic, despite some opposition at the time.
Much of this history played out at a time when laws, fear and hate ruined the lives of many. Consenting sex between gay men was a crime until 1981, with a maximum sentence of 25 years' jail (the sentence was death until 1949). Being lesbian or gay was deemed a psychiatric illness until 1973. More recently, the World Health Organisation only removed transgender as a "mental disorder" in 2019.
This is why our Council contributed land worth $13 million for the VPC, as an investment not only in our local economy but in the health and wellbeing of the LGBTIQ+ community.
