Celebrating IDAHOBIT 2021
IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia) is a day to activate, educate and change the world.
And according to LGBTQIA+ youth organisation Minus18:
75% of LGBTQIA+ young people experience some form of discrimination
77% of Trans and Gender Diverse people report being discriminated against in the past 12 months
39% of LGBTQIA+ people have experienced depression in the past 12 months, compared to 6.2% of the general population
For our team at The Push, today we are hitting pause on our work to reflect and have a conversation about how we can better support and elevate the voices of young LGBTQIA+ people across our community. We know that as a youth music organisation, we can play an important role in ensuring all young LGBTQIA+ artists, industry practitioners and audiences can be safe and supported at our all-ages music events and programs.
I encourage all our all-ages events teams and community of young people across Australia to do the same and have a discussion about what you’re doing now, and what you can do better to ensure your events and activities are safe and inclusive for all LGBTQIA+ young people into the future.
Some super simple, but effective things you can put in place for your next all-ages event include:
Making sure LGBTQIA+ young people are represented and supported to have their voices heard in your all-ages events team
Programming representative line-ups that include LGBTQIA+ artists
Providing gender-free bathrooms at your venue
Offering stickers for attendees to display their name and pronouns
Ensuring all marketing and communications detail that your event is queerphobia-free
Providing LGBTQIA+ inclusion training and development opportunities for all staff and crew working on your event
Making sure that all attendees know that if they don’t want their photo taken, that’s okay
Having trained youth workers present to make sure everyone can feel safe and supported
For more information on IDAHOBIT and how you can better support young LGBTQIA+ young people in your communities, check out idahobit.org.au.
Kate Duncan
CEO, The Push