Fitzroy St to become home to Australia’s first Australia’s first Pride Centre

AUSTRALIA’S first Pride Centre will march into St Kilda, with Fitzroy St to become a hub for members and allies of the LGBTI community.

St Kilda will be home to Australia’s first Pride Centre. Picture: Chris Eastman

ST KILDA will be home to Australia’s first Pride Centre.

More than 50,000 people flock to Fitzroy St every year as part of the Pride March, which has been held in the beachside suburb since 1996.

Now the street will be a permanent hub for members and allies of the LGBTI community, with Port Phillip Council beating out fierce competition from two other inner city councils to snare the Pride Centre.

It is understood Melbourne and Yarra councils both made a bid for the centre and Stonnington had also expressed interested but did not submit a formal bid.

The $38 million hub, based on San Francisco’s LGBT Community Centre, will house LGBTI community organisations and groups as well as advisory, health and support services.

As one door closes on Fitzroy St another opens, with the Pride Centre set to open opposite the soon-to-be-shut Gatwick Hotel, at 79-81 Fitzroy St.

Work is expected to start within 12 months.

The council have splashed $13 million to buy the former Monroe’s Restaurant site and turn it, and the carpark next door, into the Pride Centre, heralding a brighter future for struggling Fiztroy St.

The State Government has pledged $15 million for the centre.

Minister for Equality, Martin Foley, said it was a “milestone day” for equality in Victoria.

“This is a milestone day for Victoria’s equality agenda, and ... sticking up for a group of people who deserve to have their issues heard, their differences celebrated,” Mr Foley said.

More than 50,000 people marched down Fitzroy St this year for the annual Pride March. Picture: Tony Gough

Transgender teen Georgie Stone, and her cat Joy, has thrown her support behind the Pride Centre. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“This is a positive addition to our worth as a community and as a state.”

Mr Foley said the centre would help to rejuvenate Fitzroy St.

Port Phillip Mayor Bernadene Voss said she was “tremendously proud” Fitzroy St had been chosen.

“I can’t think of a better location than the heart of St Kilda,” she said.

“For decades the LGBTIQ community has been welcomed here.

“St Kilda has a rich and inclusive history.”

Pride Centre Board chairwoman Jude Munro said it was an “historical and deep commitment to supporting the LGBTIQ community.

“Today is a day of pride, celebration and thanks,” she said.

“We will own this site in perpetuity and we will march by it every pride march knowing it’s ours.”

Transgender teenager Georgie Stone, who was last year named GLBTI Person of the Year at the GLOBE Community Awards, said St Kilda was the “perfect place” for the nation’s first Pride Centre.

“St Kilda has such a diverse, rainbow community, it hosts the Pride March; it’s really the heart of the city’s — even the country’s — pride,” she said.

Georgie, 16, said a centralised place for LGBTI youth would be vital to forging social connections during an often difficult time.

“I felt quite isolated growing up trans; I didn’t know anyone else my age who was trans, or LGBTI for that matter,” she said.

“For me, just to have somewhere like that to go and meet people and be part of that community would have been really good.”

Georgie said she was thrilled the Pride Centre would be built.

“Just that there is a Pride Centre is really good, really special — and needed,” she said.

The Elwood College teen and champion for social change has garnered more than 15,300 signatures on a petition calling for fairer access to cross hormone therapy for young trans people.

She will present the petition to politicians in Canberra this month.

“I hope younger trans kids know they’re not alone, there is so much support out there,” she said.

“And hopefully (the petition and the Pride Centre) can inspire this idea as well.”