The Victorian government has confirmed funding for a “Queer Kids” club for “LGBTQIA+ 6–12-year-olds”, a performance by a self-described “third-gender” artist, and a social club for “LGBTQIA+” high-school students.
The grants totally $100,000 in taxpayer money are part of the government’s annual HEY (Happy Equal Youth) round of funding and linked to the state’s annual Midsumma Pride festival.
HEY is a joint initiative by the Youth Affairs Council Victoria and the state government which awards annual grants of up to $10,000 to homosexual projects and “mainstream organisations” that “support the further breakdown of barriers that exist for LGBTQIA+ young people in all spaces”.
The annual grants scheme, which began in 2010 and has just completed its 15th round of funding, has provided over $1.6 million to more than 143 organisations over its lifetime.
The funding regime is divided into Youth-led Projects for “LGBTIQA+ young people with innovative projects they know will support their LGBTIQA+ peers”, and Social Connectedness Projects for services that will “expand or improve their support for LGBTIQA+ young people, and for targeted projects for LGBTIQA+ young people that will improve their mental health and wellbeing”.
The latest round of funding included a $10,000 grant for “Qwids (short for Queer Kids)” – a group that is “formed for and by LGBTQIA+ 6–12-year-olds in Melbourne” that offers them “a nice, chill space to hang out” to help them “feel connected and proud of who they are”.
HEY also gave a $10,000 grant to The Aletheia Project, a “youth-led health initiative empowering female-identifying LGBTQIA+ youth from culturally + linguistically diverse backgrounds to understand, advocate for, and own their health”.
The program awarded another $1,000 to an initiative involving a “dedicated social club for LGBTIQA+ students” at a Melbourne high school which will include weekly lunchtime meet-ups that will be “supervised by staff who identify as LGBTIQA+ themselves”.
Other applications approved include a $10,000 grant for a project in western Victoria involving a digital character called “Bowie the sheep” which aims to “share educational messages about LGBTQIA+ experiences, inclusion, and diversity”.
A further $10,000 was awarded to Survive with Pride, a project that will create “kits for LGBTQIA+ young people in the Yorta Yorta region who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness”, with each kit containing “seasonal essentials, health and service resources, joy- and pride-inducing items, and gender-affirming products, tailored as masc, femme, or neutral”.
HEY also approved $7,000 for a Queer Youth Writer’s Collective, $9,000 for a dance-related event called the Naarm Ballroom Emerging Leaders program, and $8,500 for a Queer Fashion Parade that will teach people “how to do feminising make up, and to help them make their costumes”.
Victorian Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt said at the announcement of this year’s round of HEY funding that her government was “building a Victoria where everyone is welcome and celebrated [and that] these grants are supporting young LGBTIQA+ Victorians to live their best lives”.
State Minister for Equality Vicki Ward added: “These projects help ensure LGBTIQA+ young people feel safe, supported and empowered in their communities.”
In addition to the HEY grants, the Victorian government also announced “First Nations (sic) Wiradjuri and Filipinx (sic) artist” Mo’Ju as the lead performer at this year’s Victoria’s Pride Street Party.
Mo’Ju, a self-described “third culture and third gender kid”, will headline the annual event in Fitzroy in early February.
The street party is one part of a $6.8 million investment the Victorian government has made in Victoria’s Pride events, with the state government saying that “we don’t just talk about equality, we deliver it”.
“With Mo’Ju headlining, this year’s Pride will transform Melbourne’s streets into a celebration of music, creativity and community – a powerful reminder that equality matters and that we’ll always stand with LGBTIQA+ Victorians,” Ms Ward said.
Header image: Children at Qwids (Facebook).
