Summary / objectives

When Minus18 announced their Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal event for LGBTI teens they were overwhelmed to sell-out tickets. But their success was an unintentional accident by an anti-gay group that Minus18 cleverly capitalised on to fundraise for the dance party.

Background

The Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal is run by Minus18 and Safe Schools Coalition Victoria and supported by the Victorian Government in Melbourne, Australia. It gives a safe space for teenagers who don’t identify as straight. Those in attendance can dress however they want, act however they want and bring whomever they want.

The anti-gay Stop Safe Schools Coalition group heard about this and encouraged their supporters via Facebook to buy up all the AU$40 (£20) tickets. The tickets were non-refundable and non-transferable and the group thus aimed to prevent teenagers from attending. The Facebook post said ‘The more tickets sold to us the more youth we protect’.

However, the group did not realise that Minus18 wasn’t selling tickets to the event - it was crowdfunding it! Every ‘ticket’ sold was actually a donation that went directly to the charity event, allowing it to provide entry to teenagers who couldn’t otherwise afford admission. Minus18 set an initial fundraising target of AU$18,000, but when it discovered what was being done by the conservative group, it raised its goal. By the following day, it had raised AU$45,000 - all of it non-refundable.

Results

All 500 tickets to the event were sponsored and Minus18 were looking for a bigger venue.