Confronting threats to LGBTIQ equality in Australia and the United States, Federation will join a march in Sydney on 11 June in common cause with marches being held across the United States, and all are welcome to join.
Since coming into power, President Donald Trump has rolled back guidance to schools protecting transgender students, appointed Tom Price, a hardline vocal opponent of LGBTI rights as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, while Eric Fanning, the first openly gay Secretary of the US Army, has been replaced by Mark Green who called being transgender “a disease.”
Here in Australia, encouraged by the conservative and religious factions of the Liberal Party, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s coalition government has also been a barrier to LGBTIQ rights, derailing any move towards achieving marriage equality as well as a continued opposition and assault upon the Safe Schools Coalition program.
In other parts of the world the LGBTIQ community faces dire circumstances. There are reports of the Russian and Chechnya governments encouraging a wave of extreme violence and persecution against LGBTIQ people and their families worldwide.
Activists in the United States have called a for a Equality March for Unity and Pride to bring together tens of thousands of supporters to march in solidarity against oppressive and barbaric policies that restrict the human rights freedoms of LGBTIQ people.
Organisers of the rallies across Australia say the protests and rallies are in response to the loss of LGBTIQ rights worldwide and that people can no longer stand by and take the loss of freedoms and human rights.
Join the Global Day of Action for LGBTIQ rights on Sunday, 11 June by joining the rally at 1.30pm outside Sydney Town Hall, followed by a march up Oxford Street.