An anti-gay hate group has seen a plot to ruin an LGBT event blow up massively in their bigoted faces.
Australia’s largest youth led organisation for LGBT youths, Minus 18, has held a Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal in Melbourne every year since 2010, reports The Guardian.
The anti-gay Stop Safe Schools Coalition group thought they’d devised a cunning scheme to destroy the 2016 installment by urging their Facebook followers to buy up all the event’s tickets.
‘The more tickets sold to us the more youth we protect’ they claimed online. Thankfully, however, their hate-filled sabotage backfired big time.
After the group’s aim was made public online, a crowdfunding page set up by Minus 18 was flooded with donations to help ensure the LGBT teens involved wouldn’t be denied their formal.
The page was aiming to raise 15,000 Aus dollars (roughly £7,500) but has actually surpassed the $45,000 mark (roughly £22,400).
The chief executive of Minus 18 has said the result means the event will likely now be free to all attendees.
Micah Scott told Guardian Australia:
The response has been that the community won’t stand for homophobia and transphobia, and have sent a really strong message to these people – and the Australian Christian Lobby – that LGBTI young people deserve to feel included and safe.
Scott also referred to the Stop Safe Schools Coalition as being ‘all talk’.
He said:
It’s very clearly monitored by someone who is too scared to put their name to their outdated views, and the community response and support we have shows that even if something were to happen like that, they’d be vastly outnumbered and largely unsuccessful.
Stop Safe Schools Coalition has since claimed to have become a target for online abuse.
Obviously threats of violence can’t be condoned, but when you preach hate and a lack of understanding, it’s hardly surprising when such things come full circle.
