After travelling the world, the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress, has come to Sydney, raising much-needed awareness of the human rights affected the global LGBTQIA+ community. The dress is modelled in front of the Sydney Harbour by actor, theatre critic and trans woman, Suzy Wrong.
Measuring over 3.5 metres high and 16 metres in diameter, the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress was designed in 2016 by Mattijs van Bergen, Arnout van Krimpen, Jochem Kaan and Oeri van Woezik.
It is made up of the national flags of 71 countries where it is still illegal to be LGBTQIA+ and where members of the community can be penalised by imprisonment, torture or death.
“The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress is a powerful embodiment of the global journey toward equality for people who face serious discrimination and harm based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or variations in sex characteristics,” says Ymania Brown, a Samoan born Fa’afafine trans woman from Australian LGBTIQ+ organisation, Equality Australia.
Since it was created, six countries – Angola, Belize, India, Trinidad and Tobago and Botswana – have changed their legislation and their flags have been replaced with the rainbow flag. Most recently, Singapore has decriminalised homosexuality and the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis ruled that laws criminalising homosexuality are unconstitutional.
“After decades of work by activists from affected communities, many countries have repealed laws that criminalised people on the basis of who they are or who they love, but still 71 countries criminalise sexual acts between people of the same sex and 13 countries directly criminalise the gender identity or expression of trans and gender diverse people while many more disproportionately target trans and gender diverse people under other criminal laws.”
New South Wales is the first Australian state to welcome the dress, ahead of the Sydney WorldPride 2023 kicking off in February, which includes the LGBTQIA+ Human Rights Conference on 1-2 March 2023.
See below the list of countries as compiled by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA):
- Singapore
- Uganda
- Qatar
- Mauritius
- Comoros
- Ghana
- Turkmenistan
- Cameroon
- Palestine
- Namibia
- Egypt
- Afghanistan
- Morocco
- Dominica
- Senegal
- Malawi
- Samoa
- Kenya
- Malaysia
- Uzbekistan
- Ethiopia
- Papua New Guinea
- Sudan
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Cook Islands
- United Arab Emirates
- Maldives
- Swaziland
- Brunei
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Zimbabwe
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Myanmar
- Kuwait
- Iraq
- Bangladesh
- Guyana
- Guinea
- Yemen
- Jamaica
- Grenada
- Tonga
- Saudi Arabia
- Eritrea
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Oman
- Iran
- Kiribati
- Tuvalu
- Lebanon
- Nigeria
- Indonesia
- Barbados
- Pakistan
- Gambia
- Algeria
- Burundi
- Solomon Islands
- Sierra Leone
- Mauritania
- Saint Lucia
- Syria
- Libya
- Liberia
- Chad
- South Sudan
- Zambia
- Somalia
- Sri Lanka
