Bendigo Queer Arts Festival organisers John Richards and Chris Butler were on hand to welcome an election commitment of $50,000 by member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards on Thursday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The pair said the program for next year's Pride festival, now in its fourth year, is already shaping up, and the money would be "enormously helpful" in giving the eight-person committee and 20 to 30 volunteers certainty over the next two years.
"We're a community not-for-profit so $50,000 goes a long way for us," Mr Richards said.
Aside from the Pride arts and culture festival, which runs over three weekends in March and April, the Bendigo Queer Arts Festival group also organises the Bendigo Queer Film Festival and Queer Country Art Exhibition.
Mr Richards said the group had a philosophy of using "storytelling as a tool for empathy" and were pleased that 35 per cent of the Pride festival crowd was heterosexual.
"It's so exciting to see that art can make a difference."
Ms Edwards credited the group with doing a huge amount of work to build the popularity of the Pride festival across the region, and with it Bendigo's reputation as a welcoming town.
She believed a much greater level of acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community had developed over the past eight years locally, including through the efforts of the Believe in Bendigo movement.
"We know there are divisive elements in our community but we have quashed those voices," Ms Edwards said.
"We don't want to see any group marginalised.
"We want to see them part of the broader community."
The local member cited the role of the Labor government in strongly supporting Victoria's queer community through initiatives such as establishing a commissioner for equality, funding grassroots events and, this year, banning gay conversion therapy - a "milestone", which she claimed the Coalition could overturn if they won government.
The Liberals' shadow minister for equality, James Newbury, last year gave "an iron-clad guarantee" the party would not change the laws.
With homosexuality only decriminalised 40 years ago in Victoria and trans people now subject to the same sort of discrimination, events such as the Pride festival played an important role for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, its organisers said.
"Particularly if you live in regional areas you can feel like you're the only gay in the village," Mr Butler said.
"This reminds us we can come together and have fun and bring the community with us."
