Story out of Melbourne, Australia:
A conservative group’s attempt to sabotage a formal for young queer people has spectacularly backfired. The publicity the group drew to the event helped raise enough funds to cover its entire cost.
The youth-led organisation Minus18 has held a Same Sex Gender Diverse formal for gender-diverse and same sex-attracted young people aged 21 and under in Melbourne since 2010.
The Stop Safe Schools Coalition group urged its 600-odd Facebook followers to sabotage the Melbourne event by purchasing tickets to it in a post on Saturday. Tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, so “the more tickets sold to us, the more youth we protect”, the page’s administrator explained.
The Facebook page was set up last week to lobby against the government-funded Safe Schools Coalition, which fosters safe and inclusive environments in schools for lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex students and staff.
But publicity of the group’s bid to sabotage the event has had the opposite effect, increasing donations to Minus18’s crowdfunding page, which on Wednesday afternoon had raised nearly $36,500 for the formal – more than double its aim of $15,000.
The chief executive of Minus18, Micah Scott, told Guardian Australia the “overwhelming response” meant the event would likely be made entirely free for attendees – “which is the opposite effect to what Stop Safe Schools wanted”. Cont.
Story from - The Guardian
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