This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has joined the 30th annual Midsumma Pride March, delivering a powerful pledge to protect trans and gender-diverse communities from hate and discrimination.
On Sunday morning (February 2), thousands of marchers and thousands more spectators gathered on St Kilda’s Fitzroy Street.
The Midsumma Pride March started half an hour earlier this year due to the forecast extreme heat in Melbourne today.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and the state’s Equality Minister Vicki Ward joined the marchers.
Allan called out US President Donald Trump and acknowledged a rise in homophobic and transphobic policies and rhetoric is taking a toll on the LGBTIQA+ community in Australia.
“We have all come a long way. But we only need to look overseas to see how quickly progress can be reversed,” Allan said.
“Even though it’s 2025, we’re seeing efforts not just to wind back the gains of equality that have been made over the past 30 years but worse, to continue to marginalise, continue to inflict hate and hurt on our LGBTIQA+ community.”
Allan said, “I’ll always walk with this community through good times and bad.
“Hard-right extremists who want to take notes from the MAGA movement will have to first come through me, my Government, and the vast majority of Victorians,” she said.
“In Victoria, equality is not negotiable. Everyone is free to love who they want to love and be who they are.”
‘We need this now more than ever’
Victoria’s first Pride March took place in 1996 in response to vilification and stigma against LGBTQIA+ Victorians.
LGBTQIA+ Commissioner Joe Ball, a trans man, said marching today is more important than ever.
“This is a day where we come together in unity, pride, and celebration. We need this now more than ever,” Joe Ball said.
“On this 30th anniversary year, some people will have marched for 30 years, while it will be someone else’s first time.”
Midsumma CEO Karen Bryant said the Pride March has always been “a bold declaration of love, identity, and solidarity.”
“The message for us this year is to call all our communities in together regardless of where they come from, to stand together in strength and unity for those who march today and those who will march tomorrow,” she said.
“This milestone event invites everyone—on foot or wheels, young and old, all cultures, all faiths, all identities—to march together in fierce, fabulous unity.
“As we celebrate this year’s theme of Collective Identity(s), we reaffirm that true strength lies in our diversity. Every voice, every story, and every step forward enriches the fabric of our community.”
