The program in question is known as the Safe Schools Coalition and is 100% optional. It runs in a number of schools across Australia that includes public, private, primary, secondary and religious schools. The main aims of the Coalition are to reduce homophobia, educate individuals on LGBTI issues without it being based on myths or stories and also to allow individuals who may not necessarily be straight to come out as such and not get attacked for it. The program also has sponsorship from pretty much every Sexual Health educator in the country, some of which are government funded.
Most of the goals of the Coalition are school-wide. That is, if there are changes, they tend to affect overall school policy or certain events ie uniform policies, anti-bullying policies and expanding school formals to allow for same-sex/transgender individuals. The rest are mostly aimed at certain specific events supporting the LGBTI community and whether or not the school opts to celebrate those events is entirely up to them (the Coalition does talk with schools on this and tailors the program accordingly).
Now that all the background information is out of the way, let's get on with the meat of this post.
A charity group, Minus18 (which focuses on disadvantaged LGBTI individuals), opted to host an event that was designed for LGBTI individuals and their allies to attend (as while many schools have signed up to the Coalition, it does take a while for things to change). Unfortunately, a group that was attacking the Safe Schools Coalition (fitting named the STOP Safe School Coalition, or SSSC) decided that this event was linked to the Coalition and opted to try and force a shutout. That is, they planned on buying all of the nonrefundable tickets to the event, then ripping them up and effectively denying actual eventgoers a chance to attend. So going along in their merry glory, they snapped up all of the early bird tickets ($10).
At this point, I should note two things:
1) An ally is anyone who supports LGBTI individuals and makes a point of it. They do not need to necessarily be LGBTI themselves. So yes, you can be 100% straight and still attend this formal. The aim was just to have a nice formal event where you can be outside the norm and not get bullied for it.
2) Minus18 and the Safe Schools Coalition have almost zero links to each other, except for the fact that Minus18 occasionally receives funding from the Coalition (not for this event though).
What the SSSC missed however, is that the ticketing system this year, is in fact, crowdfunded. Yup, it's 2016 and they completely missed that crowdfunding is still very much a thing. How the plan would actually work is that when you bought a "ticket" online, you were actually sponsoring a ticket for someone else. Those individuals who actually wanted to attend the event had to contact Minus18 directly (either by phone or in person), put their name down on a list and they would receive a ticket on the night. For every $40, it gave a chance for someone to attend the event for free. Their original goal was $15,000 (which would've allowed for around 375 people to attend)
So, as of 23/2/2016, they have now raised just over $45,000. This means that a whopping 1,125 people can attend the event. The early bird tickets that were sold? Nothing but a puddle in the middle of the ocean. In other words, by effectively denying people a $10 ticket, the Coalition have now actually allowed more people to attend.
To my understanding, Minus18 have opted to move to a larger venue and any money raised for the event after the formal will be going towards a similar formal event happening in Adelaide later this year.
Update: As of the 26/2/2016, they have raised $46,000.
Unfortunately, this has come with a consequence in that the Safe Schools Coalition is now subject to a governmental enquiry. I will cover this issue in another post.
So, as of 23/2/2016, they have now raised just over $45,000. This means that a whopping 1,125 people can attend the event. The early bird tickets that were sold? Nothing but a puddle in the middle of the ocean. In other words, by effectively denying people a $10 ticket, the Coalition have now actually allowed more people to attend.
To my understanding, Minus18 have opted to move to a larger venue and any money raised for the event after the formal will be going towards a similar formal event happening in Adelaide later this year.
Update: As of the 26/2/2016, they have raised $46,000.
Unfortunately, this has come with a consequence in that the Safe Schools Coalition is now subject to a governmental enquiry. I will cover this issue in another post.
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