PSA members at the Leichhardt office of Community Corrections celebrated the World Pride Festival held in Sydney earlier this year.

“Here at Leichhardt we try and promote inclusivity and equality everyday,” said Claire Harlender, who is one of the Pride Champions for the Department of Communities and Justice. “We had a competition running throughout the office for everyone to decorate their pod in an allocated colour of the Pride rainbow flag. The brief was to demonstrate inclusivity and equality as well as what World Pride meant to them as a team.

“Our main event was a guest speaker who was an original member of the 1978 First Mardi Gras. She provided an in-depth talk to all of Leichhardt office. Many other offices joined into the event via MS Teams.

“To me, World Pride means everyone taking a step towards being more inclusive and accepting people as they are, regardless of who they love and how they identify.

“It is about providing the opportunity for people to be accepted as people, and for them to feel safe to be their true selves in every area of their life, not just behind closed doors due to fear of prejudice and judgement.

“It means recognition and acceptance for all, the opportunity for education to disperse across the world of how everyone should be treated with kindness and acceptance regardless of who they are and what their lives entail.

“In short it means peace, love, kindness and acceptance to me. It means being kind and promoting others around us to be, too.”