The new directors of Queenstown’s Gay Ski Week – renamed Winter Pride – plan on making the resort gay-friendly every week of the year.
In a New Zealand first, locals Martin King and Mike Hughes have launched the Queenstown Pride Pledge.
It’s designed to enable individuals and businesses to publicly support the rainbow community’s rights to be visible, safe and healthy.
And in a coup, they’ve co-opted mayoress Karen Boult as patron of the pledge.
The new initiative promises to be a win-win for both tourism and the local rainbow community.
By becoming visibly gay-friendly, the resort should attract more rainbow travelers with their valuable ‘pink dollars’.
But members of the local LGBTTQI+ community should benefit, too, as employers commit to running inclusive workplaces.
King says he and Hughes realised their Winter Pride festival, starting September 1 this year, is “a celebration of pride” for only one week, ‘pride’ being a word adopted worldwide to celebrate or recognise the rainbow community.
Mountain Scene – July 2018
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