New Zealand Police Diversity Liaison Officers poster

This poster promotes New Zealand Police Diversity Liaison Officers who attended Out in the Square, Wellington’s annual LGBTQI+ fair.

The first Wellington Lesbian and Gay Fair took place in 1986 in Newtown School. Its theme was ‘A Fair for a Fair Law’ as part of the Homosexual Law Reform campaign. The fair became an annual event, driven by Des Smith and John Jolliff.

In 2008, a group of community members who took over the organising, relocated the fair to Civic Square to create more visibility for LGBTQI+ communities in the centre of the city. It was renamed Out in the Square, and was advertised by this poster. Over the next six years, Out in the Square drew thousands of people celebrate and support rainbow communities.

2015’s fair was postponed due to windy weather (a version called Out in the Carpark was held as part of CubaDupa instead).

In 2016, Out in the Square moved to Waitangi Park and was renamed Out in the Park. In 2017, Out in the Park was attended by dozens of rainbow groups, rainbow MPs Louisa Wall, Jan Logie, and Grant Robertson, and thousands of festival-goers. The venue was a huge success with thousands of people attending. Visibility for the community was high with passers-by coming and going.

In 2019, Out in the Park was cancelled because of the terror attacks in Christchurch the day before (15 March 2019).

In 2021, the fair moved inside into the Michael Fowler Centre, and the event was called Out in the City. The move was to increase accessibility and safety, and to avoid Wellington’s mercurial weather, but as a result, was less visible to the wider Wellington community.