New Sydney LGBTQIA+ Arts Venue Shut Down after Catholic Protest

Abuse, victimisation, threats. Just another day at the queer coalface

The property in question. By Sardaka (talk) 08:24, 1 May 2014 (UTC) — Own work, CC BY 3.0

First the fun facts.

The organisers of a new LGBTQI+ Sydney nightclub, originally named The Unholy Playhouse, (subsequently renamed The Divine Playhouse) announced they have elected to close the venue and cancel all events after receiving a breach notice from their the landlord.

Heaps Gay Events, who have been in operation since 2013, were ordered to stop engaging in “offensive trade” at the deconsecrated church, or risk lease termination following protests from religious groups.

This notice was received following a protest from Christian groups after three peaceful performance events.

That’s right folks, after just three.

The landlords in the middle of this, who have largely managed to keep their names out of the headlines, are property developers Revelop, a private real estate company. Check out this spiel from their website:

“REVELOP captures their potential before they emerge into public awareness, and with a wide vision and sharp focus, revitalises and drives them to become fully realised, connected, and sustainable developments.”

Don’t you love the developer doublespeak? Captures their potential before they emerge, sounds like demolish and put those apartments up ASAP.

How about that Intense Community Pushback?

Anyway, after a night of performance, where allegedly the Christian faith was ‘shockingly mocked’, the brand new LGBTQI+ performance space was shut down after ‘intense community pushback’, and the organizers threatened with legal action.

Such a load of twaddle.

In addition to this beat up, their social media accounts vanished. Following the brouhaha, Meta disabled the Facebook and Instagram accounts for both the venue and the Heaps Gay events collective. As of this morning, they are still down.

Quite a coordinated attack for a small queer venue that attracted a mere 70 protestors. That’s right people… 70, clearly this was clearly intense community pushback.

Show me the money

So let’s get to the point. This isn’t just about queers versus Christians, or permissiveness versus religion, although that’s always fun to watch. It’s mostly about money. The location (four buildings in total) have already been slated for redevelopment, with the wily developers first applying to build a hotel, now a sixteen-floor apartment building slated for the site. I imagine these jokers want to demolish the three buildings around the old church as quickly as possible. Getting a ‘troublesome’ tenant out early clears the way for them to bring in the bulldozers.

What a win for them. A more cynical person might think this manufactured outrage was part of an evil master plan.

The property at the centre of all this agita is a deconsecrated Catholic church, the former St John’s, last used for religious services in 1932, one of several repurposed churches in Sydney.

It’s prime real estate on a busy city street. The city commonly approves other activities for these lovely old heritage buildings in an effort to stay them from the developer’s hammer. This one had already been a kids school, a homeless shelter, and for many years, a theatre. It was slated to be refurbished and turned into a bar after its one year lease expired.

Now the Catholic right and other christian groups like Fit For The Kingdom and The Prodigal Sons are opportunistically lining up, with their thin-lipped, hand-wringing affront at this new queer travesty. They seem particularly offended by the serving of ‘unholy water’ (tequila and water) and the ‘Sunday Mess’ to be held in the venue.

I wonder, can we now be crucified for word play?

There have been calls for the $100,000 grant from the Create NSW to be returned and an apology issued to Christians. A hundred grand, wow, what would that buy in Sydney, some new taps and a couple of fire extinguishers?

Despite the usual erroneous beat up from the mainstream media, and the social-media shutdown, the organisers are claiming no breach occurred and are fighting back. So far they have received support through counter-petitions and crowdfunding initiatives. At last count over 12,000 signatures have been received in support.

Let the queer bashing continue

Sydney has a rich queer history, but also one of queer bashing. Despite a reputation and outward tolerance for queer culture, this clash has highlighted the deep divisions that still exist. After their centuries of abuse, why is it only offensive to take the piss out of the Catholic Church when queer people do it?

The arts should always be a place to challenge societal perceptions; and humour, satire and performance art are important tools to reflect our changing world.

Let’s be clear, this is not about protecting a sacred Christian site, just another targeted attack on the queer community, one that helps the cause of the Christian right, and a couple of billionaires, who frankly, are already busy helping themselves.

[embed]LGBT club in old Sydney church closes after a week amid protests The LGBTQIA+ venue says it is exploring its legal options after being issued with a breach of lease notice just days…www.abc.net.au