Everyone should be able to bring their whole selves into the city. Here’s how we support diversity and inclusion in the City of Melbourne for LGBTIQA+ communities.
Whether you’re here for work, play or a playgroup, here are some ways to follow the rainbow throughout the municipality.
Read on to follow the rainbow, or jump to areas of interest.
- Ways we support our LGBTIQA+ community
- Melbourne Awards and LGBTIQA+ Award
- Calendar of LGBTIQA+ events
- Rainbow readers and writers in our libraries
- Older LGBTIQA+ people in the City of Melbourne
- Rainbow playgroup
- Queer friendly fitness classes at Carlton Baths
- Free mpox vaccine
- Grants to foster your community
- How LGBTIQA+ friendly is the City of Melbourne?
- Resources
Find all kinds of support for LGBTIQA+ communities across the City of Melbourne.
Ways to celebrate our LGBTIQA+ community
We’re proud to provide and support a range of initiatives for our diverse LGBTIQA+ communities.
We do this through our Pride Network and through events, resources and support services for LGBTIQA+ communities and allies.
Look up to see the pride-inspired street sign on the corner of Rainbow Alley and Little Collins Street. It was installed on World AIDS Day in 2020.
By installing this sign here, we are saying to the LGBTIQA+ community and its allies: we see you, we support you and we stand with you.
Melbourne Awards
The Melbourne Awards are a chance to thank the people making a difference in our city, from long-standing initiatives to fresh new ideas that propel us forward.
The LGBTIQA+ Award category recognises and celebrates organisations and individuals who support and promote the LGBTIQA+ community. It’s judged by members of the LGBTIQA+ community.
Congratulation Thorne Harbour Health, the LGBTIQA+ Award winner for 2025. This LGBTIQ+ community-controlled health organisation provides services in HIV, sexual health, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, family violence and more.
During Victoria’s 2024–25 mpox outbreak, Thorne Harbour Health mobilised quickly with tailored social marketing, vaccination clinics and education for healthcare workers.
Past Melbourne Awards winners of the LGBTIQA+ Award include Queer Town (2024), Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (2023), Transfamily (2022) and All the Queen's Men (2021).
Calendar of LGBTIQA+ events in the City of Melbourne
Discover fabulous queer-friendly events and inclusive venues all year round across the city at What's On Melbourne External link.
Here are some highlights for your diary.
Midsumma Festival
Mid-January
A glitter-filled explosion of queer events, Midsumma Festival External link brings together local, interstate and international LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.
On the first Sunday of the festival, Midsumma Carnival opens the festival in Alexandra Gardens from 11am until late.
City of Melbourne is a proud principal sponsor of Midsumma Festival.
IDAHOBIT
17 May
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia, known as IDAHOBIT External link, calls on people across Australia to stand against discrimination and support our LGBTIQA+ mates, colleagues and families.
Melbourne Queer Film Festival
A showcase for contemporary queer cinema from Australia and beyond, Melbourne Queer Film Festival External link is the largest queer film festival in the southern hemisphere screens in cinemas across Melbourne.
It screens the best Australian and International queer films, shorts and documentaries.
Pride Month
June
Celebrates the global LGBTIQA+ community during Pride Month. Each year, we commemorate the Stonewall Riots in 1969, a key moment in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. It's also a reminder of the ongoing need for equality and inclusion for LGBTIQA+ people.
As Pride Month approaches, check What's On Melbourne External link for ways to celebrate in the city.
YIRRAMBOI Festival
Every two years in May
YIRRAMBOI Festival External link features First Nations creatives. It is a 10-day feast of artistic expressions, with a collective voice of resilience and evolutionary practices.
In the local languages of the Boonwurrung and Woi-wurrung peoples, YIRRAMBOI means TOMORROW.
Emerging, mid-career and established First Nations creatives taking back space to crack open the heart of Melbourne, revealing the hum of country beneath.
Rainbow readers and writers
Find a safe and welcoming space at City of Melbourne Libraries.
Our seven libraries feature a glorious collection that grows with our community.
And our libraries offer a place for groups to meet and run events, and bookable spaces for community events.
Inspiration for LGBTIQA+ readers and writers
- Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards features a category for stories by trans and gender diverse writers.
- Essential queer reads External link: add a rainbow to your book stack with reading suggestions including Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave and Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter.
Older people who are LGBTIQA+ in the City of Melbourne
Connect with like-minded people and have fun at events and activities designed for older members of our LGBTIQA+ community.
You’ll find a social group, LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club, support group for older lesbians, the Rainbow Door referral service and a community visitors program and more.
And look for LGBTIQA+ services and events in the Out and About Guide, featuring free and low-cost events and activities around Melbourne.
Switchboard Victoria also offers a free volunteer visitor service External link to help reduce isolation and build community.
Which services would you find useful?
Let us know what you’d like to see offered for LGBTIQA+ older people. Call 9658 9190 or email us.
Rainbow families in the City of Melbourne
Join a rainbow playgroup for people in LGBTIQA+ families who live, work or play in the City of Melbourne.
Simply fill in a playgroup registration form and check the box for ‘cultural and diversity playgroups’ to find out more.
Sessions run on Monday and Saturday morning in Kensington.
And check out this reading list for rainbow families External link, curated by Melbourne Libraries.
Queer fitness classes at Carlton Baths
At Carlton Baths, Q Fit queer friendly group fitness classes External link offer small group fitness training for members of our LGBTIQA+ community.
Two types of fitness classes are on offer:
- Q-Fit Cycle: Freestyle stationary cycle workout will build endurance and provides great cardiovascular training. Suitable for all fitness levels
- Q-Fit Strength: Tone up with high intensity and weight training workouts designed to push your training to the next level.
The aim is to create a safe space and friendly environment for the LGBTIQA+ community, with the aim of making fitness more accessible.
Find Carlton Baths at 216-248 Rathdowne Street Carlton. Email us.
Where to get a free mpox vaccination
You can book in for a free mpox vaccination in the City of Melbourne.
The vaccine is free and available to people for the following reasons, including those who do not have a Medicare card, such as international students:
- sexually active gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men
- sexually active trans and gender diverse people, if at risk of mpox exposure
- sex workers
- sexual partners (including anonymous or intimate contacts) of the above groups
- sex-on-premises venue staff and attendees
- people living with HIV, if at risk of mpox exposure, and their partners
- lab personnel working with orthopoxviruses
- health care and humanitarian workers at risk of occupational exposure to patients with mpox, especially workers who will be caring for patients in a country where Clade I transmission is occurring
- before travel for anyone (regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity) who may undertake sexual risk activities in countries with transmission of Clade I mpox.
City of Melbourne is one of three councils offering mpox immunisations, and we’re proud to have administered over 340 doses so far.
Grants to foster your community
If you belong to a community organisation that provides a great service for LGBTIQA+ communities, you may be eligible to for funding through our community funding and grants.
Grants through our Community Inclusion and Connected Neighbourhood programs, for example, support many local organisations and community groups.
How LGBTIQA+ friendly is the City of Melbourne?
Here at the City of Melbourne, we want people to bring their whole selves to work. We’re doing everything we can to make sure our workplace is inclusive, safe and respectful.
That means offering support to our LGBTIQA+ communities and staff.
We proudly show the Pride flag in the foyer of the administration building at Melbourne Town Hall to signal to everyone that this is a safe and inclusive space.
Yes to marriage equality
All couples are welcome in Melbourne. We have long affirmed our support for marriage equality, and maintained a relationship declaration register from 2007 until Australians voted yes to marriage equality in 2017.
We are proud that 84 per cent of the electorate of Melbourne voted yes to marriage equality External link.
That’s 22 per cent above the national average.
How we put pride up in lights
We believe Melbourne is a place where all genders and sexualities are welcomed, celebrated and protected.
- We are guided by our 10-year Inclusive Melbourne Strategy 2022–32
- Melbourne Town Hall lights up on days of significance to the LGBTIQA+ community, with Melbourne Pride network offering advice to select the best days to celebrate
- Team Melbourne marches in the Midsumma Pride March External link every year, coordinated by our Melbourne Pride network
- Pride in Diversity External link supports us as we strengthen inclusion. We use staff training sessions and the Australian Workplace Equality Index to track our progress
- Gender Impact Assessments are applied to new and revised policies, services and programs that have a direct impact on community
Resources for LGBTIQA+ communities in Melbourne
- Queerspace External link: As well as offering counselling, case management, advocacy and research, Queerspace offers professional development for organisations who work with LGBTIQ+ people and their families. 100 Drummond Street Carlton
- Victorian Pride Centre External link: Celebrate and protect equality in the Victorian Pride Centre, bringing Victorian LGBTIQA+ communities together in a single space
- LGBTIQA+ Inclusive Language Guide External link: Get clear guidance on appropriate language to use when working with LGBTIQA+ communities in the Victorian Government’s Inclusive Language Guide. Developed for the public sector, and useful to all
- Switchboard Victoria External link: Get peer support for LGBTIQA+ people, their families and allies at Switchboard Victoria: Access counselling through partner QLife External link and a visitor service for older people through Out&About
- Thorne Harbour Health External link: Australia’s oldest LGBTI health organisation, Thorne Harbour Health offers services including HIV testing, disability and alcohol and other drugs, and family violence
