Petition launches to bring rainbow crossing to Tauranga to celebrate LGBTQ+ community

Karangahape Rd's Progress Pride Flag rainbow crossing, just outside St Kevin's Arcade, before it was vandalised. Photo / John Nottage

An LGBTI advocate who has campaigned for six years for Tauranga City Council to install a rainbow crossing in the CBD is taking his efforts public.

Gordy Lockhart set up a petition last week asking for support to bring the city into line with other New Zealand centres that have established crossings to celebrate and show support to the Rainbow community.

Pedestrian crossings depicting a rainbow flag can be found internationally and in New Zealand, including in Auckland, Gisborne, Wellington and New Plymouth.

In recent weeks, rainbow crossings in Gisborne and Auckland have been painted over with white paint, resulting in arrests and charges of alleged vandalism.

Lockhart said he approached Tauranga’s council six years ago about painting a rainbow crossing on The Strand or Devonport Rd.

“It started with the collaboration of Tauranga Moana Pride, to celebrate our LGBTQ+ community,” he said.

“But now I feel the rainbow represents all of us and the rainbow crossing is something that all of us as humans – a whole bunch of people with different beliefs, cultures and ethnicities – are better off for celebrating those differences.”

More recently Lockhart has proposed the crossing could tie in with Te Manawataki o Te Papa Civic Precinct development plans.

“The rainbow is all of us.”

Lockhart said he sent several emails asking the council to consider a rainbow crossing he believed would recognise Tauranga as a “diverse space and diverse community”.

LGBTI advocate Gordy Lockhart. Photo / Mead Norton

“We are a heterogeneous society of multiple cultures and we are better for that.”

He said the council initially responded to his requests stating that it had to abide by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regulations, that crossings had to be black and white.

“Since then, there hasn’t really been a reason [other than] ‘Yes, it’s something we want to do at some stage but it has to be done through a consultation process’.”

He viewed that kind of response as “just a pat on the head”, Lockhart said.

Lockhart said he struggled to see how anything bad could come from such crossings, despite recent alleged vandalism and Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki threatening to sue councils that have installed them - a move legal experts have since described as “impossible”.

Devonport Rd in Tauranga's CBD, pictured in 2015. Photo / Andrew Warner

“How could there possibly be harm from having a rainbow crossing that says our people are valued?” Lockhart said.

Tauranga City Council was asked why it had not allowed a rainbow crossing, particularly when other councils had. It was also asked if the matter had to go through a consultation process, as suggested, and how this worked when other roading changes did not.

Head of transport Nic Johansson said the council would “consider all petitions thoroughly and in accordance with standing orders”.

“However, rainbow pedestrian crossings have been explored before and not pursued. We are open to looking at other ways to celebrate diversity in our city and welcome any ideas.”

A rainbow crossing on Karangahape Rd in Auckland was painted over with white paint. Photo / John Nottage / Reddit

Asked for more explanation as to why specifically a rainbow crossing would not be installed, a spokesman said more comment could be provided after the petition was considered and responded to.

The Change.org petition has attracted more than 700 supporters since it was launched on Thursday.

On social media people expressed polarised views with some stating it would support diversity and others saying ratepayer money should be better spent elsewhere.

One said if it was okay to have a smiley face on a roundabout – such as that the council has maintained Mount Maunganui – then why not a rainbow crossing?

In 2019 the council painted 3D-look crossings on The Strand, saying at the time they were to encourage drivers to slow down and were “more visually engaging than a standard pedestrian crossing”.

A transport agency spokeswoman said the responsibility for installing rainbow crossings and other roadway art lay with the relevant road controlling authority, such as Tauranga City Council, for local roads, and the agency for state highways.

There were no state highways running through Tauranga’s CBD.

Under the Traffic Control Devices Rule, updated last year, roadway art could be installed if it does not resemble another roadway marking or mislead road users about the meaning of any traffic control device, the spokeswoman said.

Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.