Celebrating IDAHOBIT - 17 May 2022

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

At The Push, we're going rainbow against discrimination for IDAHOBIT today. We’re celebrating all LGBTQIA+ people, especially our friends and family within the arts and music industry. Today gives us a moment to reflect on how we can help young LGBTQIA+ people have their voices heard across our community. As a youth music organisation, it’s important that we ensure all young LGBTQIA+ artists, industry practitioners and audiences can be involved in our all-ages music events and programs in a safe and suitable way.

We encourage everyone across our industry to take this moment as well, not just for celebrating, but to listen to our LGBTQIA+ communities and reflect on how we can all do better to elevate youth LGBTQIA+ voices and give them the opportunity to thrive in music.

One particular focus is on how we make events and activities safe and inclusive for all LGBTQIA+ young people. To help continue the conversation, we've pulled together some steps organisers can take to make their all-ages events and gigs safer and more appropriate for LGBTQIA+ young people.

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 and/or badges for attendees to display their name and pronouns
Ensuring all marketing and communications detail that your event is actively 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 from our friends at Minus18.