And finally…Pride comes before a crowd fail

The annual Victorian Same Sex Gender Diverse Formal is meant to give a safe space for teens who don’t identify as ‘straight’ to socialise while wearing what they want, bringing who they want and dancing with whomever they want, free of prejudice.

Organisers, Minus 18, decided this year to use a crowdfund campaign to fund tickets for teens who could not afford the $40 admission price.

It was at this point that an antigay group - without a keen eye for detail - named… The Stop Safe Schools Coalition spotted an opportunity.

The organisation’s raison d’être is to fight against the Australian government-funded Safe Schools Coalition Australia program – a “coalition of schools and organisations that aim to foster safe and inclusive environments for same-sex attracted, intersex, and gender diverse students, staff and families.”

Believing they’d discovered a loophole that said the tickets for the event were nontransferable and non-refundable, Stop Safe Schools called upon their members to buy up as many tickets as they could through Minus 18’s funding drive.

Believing more teens would be unable to attend the more tickets they bought, the group told members the more they spent, “the more youth we protect”.

However, according to website lgbtqnation.com the group overlooked the fact that the ticketing program set up as a crowdfunding system meant every ticket “purchased” is guaranteed to go to a LGBTQ teen to attend the event.

“You realise that if the conservatives do buy all the tickets, you can just allow registered people on a waiting list in for free? They’re effectively subsidising tickets for those who can’t buy one,” one commenter pointed out on the event’s Facebook page.

Minus 18 set an initial goal of raising $15k for 500 tickets. The group has reportedly raised nearly $30k as of Tuesday and are now planning to move the event to a larger venue and upping capacity so more teens can attend.