diff --git a/cmd/flux/bootstrap_gitlab.go b/cmd/flux/bootstrap_gitlab.go
index 96ce64aa2c..a11f3d40db 100644
--- a/cmd/flux/bootstrap_gitlab.go
+++ b/cmd/flux/bootstrap_gitlab.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/fluxcd/go-git-providers/gitprovider"
 	"github.com/fluxcd/pkg/git"
 	"github.com/fluxcd/pkg/git/gogit"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -76,7 +77,6 @@ the bootstrap command will perform an upgrade if needed.`,
 const (
 	glDefaultPermission = "maintain"
 	glDefaultDomain     = "gitlab.com"
-	glDefaultVisibility = "private"
 	glTokenEnvVar       = "GITLAB_TOKEN"
 	gitlabProjectRegex  = `\A[[:alnum:]\x{00A9}-\x{1f9ff}_][[:alnum:]\p{Pd}\x{00A9}-\x{1f9ff}_\.]*\z`
 )
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ func bootstrapGitLabCmdRun(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	}
 
 	if !gitlabArgs.private {
-		gitlabArgs.visibility = "public"
+		gitlabArgs.visibility.Set(string(gitprovider.RepositoryVisibilityPublic))
 		cmd.Println("Using visibility public as --private=false")
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/flags/gitlab_visibility.go b/internal/flags/gitlab_visibility.go
index 05f539a627..91bc328f3a 100644
--- a/internal/flags/gitlab_visibility.go
+++ b/internal/flags/gitlab_visibility.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ func (d *GitLabVisibility) String() string {
 
 func (d *GitLabVisibility) Set(str string) error {
 	if strings.TrimSpace(str) == "" {
-		str = "private"
+		str = string(gitprovider.RepositoryVisibilityPrivate)
 	}
 	if !utils.ContainsItemString(supportedGitLabVisibilities, str) {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unsupported visibility '%s', must be one of: %s",