Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:09): (973) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Equality, and the action that I seek is for the Victorian Labor government to provide additional government support for queer groups, for LGBTIQA+ people who are still facing attacks aimed at their queer youth events. Over the weekend Minus18, a key queer organisation, put out a call for help. Their biggest event for queer youth is currently the victim of a coordinated attack from homophobic and transphobic adults who have mass registered for all the tickets at this free event. Minus18 have noted that this incident is something that they can and do plan for and they can handle but that it comes alongside significant threats that are not able to be handled as easily, including abusive messages and threats to block the entrances to this event so that queer people cannot enter.

I find it quite hypocritical that grown adults who claim to want to protect kids are planning to go and actively intimidate kids just for being queer and wanting to go to a formal. Two in three LGBTIQA+ young people still experience abuse just for being who they are. As a result many will not feel safe or supported to attend their school formal. That is why these events are so important. Queer Formal exists to create a safe, supportive and pride-filled space for LGBTIQA+ youth to celebrate their identity, to make friends and to connect with their community. As one of the people who would have greatly benefited from an event like this one growing up, I must ask how anyone can think that providing a safe and supportive space for kids to just exist is wrong.

I am asking the Labor government to provide better assistance to queer events to ensure that they run smoothly and to make sure that not a single one has to be cancelled – whether that be immediate assistance for an event like Queer Formal or ongoing assistance here in the Parliament through anti-vilification laws and acting on the recommendations from the report into far-right extremism. There is just too much at stake.