Students and Staff Protest Australian Catholic University’s Removal of Pride Flags

Students and staff at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) are pushing back after the university directed librarians to remove rainbow Pride flags from public display on the institution’s campuses.

The directive, which was emailed to staff across ACU’s seven campuses in Australia, as well as one in Rome, asked them not to display rainbow flags or stickers in any of the institution’s libraries because the Pride displays were “not considered to be appropriate at ACU,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The directive, sent during WorldPride celebrations in Sydney, sparked dissent from some staff and students, who wrote to the university’s vice-chancellor in protest. ACU’s LGBTQ+ organizations sent an open letter to administrators, stating, in part:

“When you and your representatives should have been promoting messages of celebration, you have decided to ban pride imagery and instead send a message that LGBTIQ+ people are not welcome at your university. The directive sent to staff under your watch is, therefore, a direct affront to ACU’s mission to act in truth and love in the pursuit of knowledge, the dignity of the human person, and the common good.”

In response, university leaders stated that ACU is based in the Catholic Church’s beliefs and traditions, yet it is open to all and as such public spaces like campus libraries do not focus on particular groups or societies.

“We strive to do all we can to offer support and care to every student,” the administrators wrote. “Universities are places in which any voice making a reasonable case will be heard and is not silenced, so long of course as that voice shows equal respect to all other positions, including the position reflected in the University’s Mission.”

The university recognizes some flags for public display under its official policy, including the flags of Australia, Aboriginal communities, the Holy See, and the university itself.

An ACU spokesperson said that staff were free to display other flags in personal spaces such as offices on campus, saying, “There is no directive or policy that denies displaying flags or other symbols, rainbow or otherwise, in personal spaces across the university.”

Noah Riseman, a history professor, said there is no reason not to hang rainbow flags around campus, as QNews reported:

“’The flags policy is about flying official flags on campus flagpoles,” he said. “It says nothing about other flags on display nor does it preclude other flags like rainbow flags.’”

Riseman said he and LGBTQ+ students and staff will remain visible in the face of the recent flag incident, tweeting:

“’I am not going back in the closet, nor are our #LGBTIQ+ students and staff. . .I know our staff & students are better than this. We will not let senior executives’ prejudice silence #LGBTIQ+ students, staff & our allies. We will continue to be out & proud. And guess what? You’re going to see a lot more rainbows as we exercise our intellectual freedom.'”

For Riseman, the right to display Pride symbols is about creating safe and welcoming environments for queer members of the campus community. He told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“‘We want LGBTIQA+ students and staff to feel safe and welcome at ACU. Visibility is part of creating that safe environment. The pride flag and other rainbow imagery says, “You are welcome here.”‘”

–Grace Doerfler (she/her), New Ways Ministry, April 13, 2023