Rainbow Community Angels is a grassroots community-led safety initiative based in Naarm/Melbourne in Victoria. We launched in May 2023 with just 5 volunteers and have grown to over 150 trained Angels across Victoria.
Rainbow Community Angels take part in peaceful actions to support community safety at inclusive events like Drag Storytime at a local library and rainbow formals for LGBTIQA+ young people. These events continue to be targeted as part of a broader rise in anti-trans hate, as well as transphobia and homophobia in Australia and beyond.
Your online and in person support enables us to train and empower LGBTIQA+ people and allies to stand together in solidarity for LGBTIQA+ inclusion in their local communities and enhance community safety by engaging in non-violent community mobilisations to support LGBTIQA+ events.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Volunteer to be an Angel: register your interest to attend a training session or ask to host one where you live or work.
Follow and share our posts on facebook and instagram
Share your skills and expertise: talk to media, police liaison, sewing and crafting, accessibility planning, training delivery and more!
Donate to help us print t-shirts, maintain the wings, share resources with Angels around Victoria (and beyond!)
WHO WE ARE
Founding project organisers include experienced LGBTIQA+ advocates, drag queens, trans and gender diverse people and rainbow families. Our youngest Angel is eleven. Our oldest Angels are in their seventies. Two of our longest serving Angels are both 15 years old. Angels are many things including rainbow families, activists, queer and trans community members, parents of trans kids, allys who had siblings who were bullied at school for being gay, teachers, library staff, unionists.
We work to create accessible, affirming and safer spaces for people of all ages and abilities to attend training and participate in actions.
Anyone who supports our aims and ways of working is welcome to join us.
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WHAT WE DO AT EVENTS
People can participate in a range of ways:
- Some will wear magnificent rainbow angel wings, shielding attendees entering the event from seeing any hostile protesters who are present.
- Some will act as marshals, assisting with communication and safety for Rainbow Community Angels, event staff and participants.
- Some will liaise as needed with media, event organisers, performers, security, police and others.
- Sometimes community call outs will be promoted via Facebook, especially when events are under threat and we need more people to build a beautiful rainbow gathering.
WHAT WE DO AS ANGELS
Through our actions we strive to :
- Empower LGBTIQA+ people to stand up for their rights to safety, visibility and equality, especially in their local communties.
- Support the efforts of councils, libraries, youth services, small businesses and others to include and celebrate LGBTIQA+ people and rainbow families in their local communities.
- Celebrate solidarity, radical trust and queer joy.
Angels: a proud and peaceful LGBTIQA+ tradition
Angels have become a proud and peaceful LGBTIQA+ tradition.
- The first were classmates of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man murdered in Colorado in 1998. They used their Angel wings to shield his family and community from homophobic protesters at his murderers’ trial.
- In 2016, Angels shielded mourners at the funerals of Orlando (Florida, US) Pulse nightclub shooting victims, again shielding them from homophobic protesters.
- In 2016 and again in 2017 in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) Angels welcomed LGBTIQA+ youth to the Minus 18 Queer Formal in St Kilda, when homophobes threatened to picket it (they stayed away).