Funding for pride events

Funding for this year’s Pride Events and Festivals Fund has been announced, totalling $220,000.

Equality Minister Harriet Shing made the announcement in Warragul on July 29 amongst members of the Gippsland Pride Initiative, who launched the Rainbow Brick Road Project the same day.

LGBTQIA+ organisations and community groups will be able to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to support the planning and delivery of events that are intended to promote queer arts and culture, celebrate diversity and raise awareness.

The Gippsland Pride Initiative were one of the groups that received funding previously from the Pride Events and Festivals Fund and used it to deliver the Gippsland Pride Gala earlier this year.

The funding program is part of a long-term strategy by the state government called ‘Pride in our future: Victoria’s LGBTIQ+ strategy 20222023’.

Ms Shing encouraged organisations to apply for funding across the state and spoke of the importance of pride events in regional areas.

“It is so important that across regional and rural Victoria we have a range of opportunities for groups to come together and, in fact, to participate,” she said.

“We know that where people are geographically separated it is more important than ever to provide opportunities for people to gather and to celebrate pride and diversity.”

Ms Shing used the Gippsland Pride Initiative as an example of a recent, and local, “extraordinarily successful” pride event.

“By way of my own pride, I’m the patron of that organisation and to see 400 plus people coming together in Warragul... after two years of not being connected was a thing of extraordinary connection and joy and celebration,” she said.

Ms Shing said pride is an “important narrative” for young people, and not just for LGBTQIA+ people but for their friends, colleagues and family members.

“We know that young people are infinitely more accepting and more welcoming of diversity perhaps previous generations - that speaks to the enormous volume of work that people across decades have done.”

Applications are open for funding until Wednesday August 28.

Gippsland pride initiative Bass Coast representative Sally Conning, minister for equality Harriet Shing and Gippsland pride initiative chairperson Caitlin Grigsby.