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A large crowd have turned out for the official opening of the Inner West Pride Centre in the inner west Sydney suburb of Newtown.
The centre is at 1 Bedford Street, inside the newly-renovated Newtown Town Hall, and will offer a range of support services and event space for the LGBTQIA+ community.
At a rainbow ribbon-cutting on Saturday (August 10), Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the council is very proud to establish such a space in Sydney.
“We want to send a message to all of Sydney’s young people that, no matter your sexuality, you are welcome here at the Newtown Pride Centre,” Cr Byrne said.
Twenty10 is moving into Inner West Pride Centre
Twenty10 co-chair Mon Schafter said the LGBTQIA+ youth support service will be the first to move into the Pride Centre, next month.
Other organisations will also make use of the Pride Centre’s facilities. The Inner West Pride Centre will be available for community use and hire from January.
After the ribbon cutting, special guest Peter De Waal was the first to walk through the centre’s doors.
In 1973, Peter (below left) and his late partner Peter Bonsall-Boone established Sydney’s first LGBTQIA+ counselling service, Phone a Friend, in the living room of their Balmain home.
Phone a Friend would become the NSW Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service (GCLS), which later merged with Twenty10. The organisation celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
In 2023, the square across the road from Newtown Station was officially renamed Pride Square during the Sydney WorldPride mega-festival.
The new Inner West Pride Centre follows in the footsteps of the PRIDE Sydney Lesbian and Gay Community Centre in Erskineville, which closed in 2008.
In February, the mutli-venue LGBTQIA+ museum and community space Qtopia Sydney opened in Darlinghurst.
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