‘Rainbow’ title may spur acceptance
Taranaki has gained an unofficial new title as a local artist works to make the region more accepting of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community (LGBTQI+).
Safe Space Alliance (SSA) has placed a new billboard on New Plymouth’s Courtenay St calling the province the ‘‘Rainbow Region’’ of New Zealand.
‘‘A key outcome of the billboard and wider project is to help grow acceptance for the local LGBTQI+ community,’’ SSA director and New Plymouth-born artist Shannon Novak said.
‘‘This is in response to a very real need.’’
The billboard, created by graphic designer Matthias Bucher, is part of a wider project by SSA, which is supported by Creative New Zealand.
SSA registers businesses as safe spaces where LGBTQI+ people can freely express themselves without fear of violence, bullying and hate speech, which is how Novak described what being the ‘‘Rainbow Region’’ meant.
But being the ‘‘Rainbow Region’’ would only work if the wider community got behind it, he said.
‘‘This could be supporting local LGBTQI+ organisations like OUTfest Taranaki, Pride Taranaki, and RainbowYOUTH.’’
Or it could be more places being
added to the Safe Space Alliance directory.
There are currently 12 Safe Spaces registered on the SSA website in Taranaki, including New Plymouth Airport, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre and Centre City Shopping Centre.
‘‘The more safe spaces we have, the more acceptance may grow; therefore the closer we get to making the ‘Rainbow Region’ vision a reality,’’ Novak said.
‘‘We, as a wider community, need to build the ‘Rainbow Region’.’’
Novak grew up in New Plymouth in the 1980s and said back then it was not accepting of the gay community.
He said he still felt uncomfortable with public displays
of affection with his partner while home, and in his 2019 exhibition Sub Rosa, at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, he interviewed 125 people who identified as being LGBTQI+ and asked if New Plymouth was accepting of them. Ninety-two per cent said no. Becoming a more supportive and accepting region would help drive the reduction of anxiety, depression, and suicide for the local LGBTQI+ community, Novak said.
‘‘It could help identify Taranaki as a thought leader in this area for other regions (and other countries) to follow, driving visible, positive social change through increased acceptance for the LGBTQI+ community nationally, and potentially globally.’’