As part of Victoria’s Pride, Goulburn Valley Pride Shepparton is hosting an inaugural Pride Ball on Saturday, February 11 — and tickets are selling rapidly.
The glitzy, glamorous night at The Woolshed at Emerald Bank, Kialla, is a safe environment bringing together LGBTQIA+ people, partners, families, friends, allies and businesses.
Alongside the canapés, two-course meal and drink on arrival is a feast of entertainment featuring DJ Tonky and drag superstar Polly Filla.
Beneath the front of rainbows, sparkles and fabulousness, however, is a gathering of people healing from discriminatory and homophobic abuse they have faced in their lives.
GV Pride secretary Damien Stevens-Todd said casual homophobia and homophobic violence were still regular occurrences in today’s society.
He said the organisation had done a lot of good work in the LGBTQIA+ community in the past 20 years, and this event was a significant moment in his career.
“Pride festivals in big cities are needed, which means regional areas need them even more,” he said.
“GV Pride offering these opportunities to celebrate, and having the funding for these events by governments, acknowledges the long, hard road to equality.
“And it’s been just that — long and hard.”
Mr Stevens-Todd said this commitment by the government acknowledged it still had work to do, as there were barriers and issues around equity in the employment, health and education sectors.
“I’m in my 40s, a dad, a community health worker and gay,” he said.
“Many things make up me, but being gay is what others focus on and why I don’t get the job.”
It has been over two decades since homosexuality was classed as a criminal act in Australia.
Tasmania was the last state to decriminalise homosexual activity in 1997, when Mr Stevens-Todd’s age group was in adolescence.
Mr Stevens-Todd said many young people at the time, including himself, were scared and had to retrain their brain to not think of their feelings as a jailable offence.
In the foyer of The Woolshed will be the Road to Pride exhibition — a curated collection of historical memorabilia from pride marches, protests and celebrations in LGBTQIA+ history.
It will be on display from February to May at exhibitions across the GV, including the SheppARTon Festival.
The LGBTQIA+ community may be on the ‘road to pride’, but the road to recovery is the connection to get there.
“These events are healing, they help community members feel safe, free and more at peace with who they are as a queer identity,” Mr Stevens-Todd said.
Tickets to Shepparton’s inaugural Pride Ball are available at https://events.humanitix.com/pride-ball