It’s been more than three years since Australia voted to legalize same-sex marriage. To commemorate the historic 2017 decision that gave Aussie LGBTQ couples the right to marry, the country’s largest city commissioned a giant rainbow road in a park as a permanent tribute.
Spanning 90 meters (or about 295 feet), the painting of the rainbow road was completed just in time for Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebration.
Take a look at the rainbow path in this tweet from the City of Sydney:
Just in time for Mardi Gras: the new Rainbow Path in Surry Hills is finished!
The 90-metre rainbow path in Prince Alfred Park commemorates the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/kFFLakQS9I
— City of Sydney (@cityofsydney) February 16, 2021
The placement of the rainbow path is meaningful. It’s located at the site inside of Sydney’s Prince Albert Park where same-sex marriage supporters gathered together on Nov. 15, 2017, to hear the results of Australia’s marriage equality postal survey. That survey allowed the Parliament of Australia to legalize same-sex marriages, which it did in December of that year with an update to the Marriage Act of 1961. The area has now been renamed “Equality Green.”
“The name Equality Green is a fitting tribute to that joyous day when we gathered together in Prince Alfred Park to learn that love had won a landslide victory,” said Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore in a 2019 statement.
Here is another look at the path, which ends in the suburb of Surry Hills, in a tweet from Moore:
Sydney, meet your new rainbow footpath!
You’ll find it at the bottom of Equality Green in Prince Alfred Park. pic.twitter.com/wErIpwIN4u
— Clover Moore (@CloverMoore) February 16, 2021
Equality Green is not the only rainbow road you can find in Sydney. The city is also home to a permanent rainbow crossing in Darlinghurst, which has long been considered the center of Sydney’s LGBTQ community. For at least the next few months, there is also a rainbow path alongside Coogee Beach that was also installed in time for Mardi Gras 2021.
You can see this beachside rainbow road unveiled in this short video clip from 7 News Sydney’s Twitter account:
A rainbow walkway has been unveiled in Coogee. @RandwickCouncil is stepping up its celebrations and support of the @sydneymardigras, though it admits recent rain meant they needed a few goes to make the colours stick. https://t.co/8LNA5shGd3 #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/HgYc6vm5kn
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 20, 2021
In a tweet, Moore, who has served as the Lord Mayor of Sydney since 2004, wrote, “I hope those who walk our new rainbow path reflect on how far we’ve come, and the distance yet to travel toward equality for LGBTIQ communities.”
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
