Tue 7 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A LGBTI stand at the recent Festival One Christian festival was taken down before the end of the weekend after festival organisers asked the group running the stand to remove all references to sexuality and gender diversity to make the stall “family friendly”. Member of the group Craig Watson says the aim was to offer a place for festival goers to engage in conversations regarding sexuality and gender if they chose to. He says stalls such as this help to open up a positive dialogue leading to wider acceptance of LGBTI people. Festival One was held in Mystery Creek, Hamilton from 27 - 30 January and describes itself as “a celebration of art music, creativity and community, centered around the Christian faith”. The festival adds that its also “about seminars on a whole range of topics that invite and encourage discussion, and then more late night conversations!” Proud 2 Play Coordinator Craig Watson was a member of The Wilderpeople and explains the group was made up of LGBT and straight Christians, who believe that history has created a large gap between the LGBT and Christian community and that this often causes hurt an conflict on both sides. “The Wilderpeople collective was created to simply promote conversations about these topics and get people to explore where their beliefs came from and answer any questions they might have,” he says. “The aim of the stand at Festival One, was to be a passive stand that only engaged people if they engaged our team first.” The stand opened on Friday morning however on Friday night organisers asked the group to remove all words referring to sexual and gender diversity. Watson says on Saturday evening the group “felt the site was no longer effective and after a conversation with the organiser, decided to leave the festival as a compromise could not be reached”. He explains that the festival organisers felt that the references to LGBTI were not family friendly and that the group were encouraging children to talk to them about their sexuality rather than their own parents. “We did advise them that these words are very common words in schools and also there are a number of families in New Zealand with same sex or gender diverse parents. We also referred to learning from LGBT youth organisations around the world that prove that youth will "come out" to a friend or person who they know will accept them before a parent.” Watson says “We received very mixed responses from festival goers. Obviously some people were extremely upset as they believed the bible was clear that sexuality and gender diversity was wrong and those people must change their ways and not be encouraged. “However, we also received a number of very encouraging comments from youth and adults who were happy to see these topics being discuss and a safe space for this conversation to be had. We also had a small number of LGBT people come to the stall and say they were worried that the festival was going to exclude them, but that this stall showed them that they were supported.” Anti-abortion group Right to Life have since commended the festival organisers “for rejecting the destructive homosexual gender identity agenda” and spokesperson Ken Orr states that “they [festival organisers] have given leadership to the whole community that we must stand up and defend our culture from those who seek to destroy it”. Watson however, says that stall like this are important in Christian spaces. “Life is hard,” he says. “Everyone has a different set of struggles and there is no guide to live the perfect life. Even the bible has conflicting views and theologians disagree all the time of the various interpretations. Therefore we believe conversation is so important. Chatting about these big issues which most people care about, often leads people to a more confirmed view and resolution. “For the conservative Christians these stalls given them a space to challenge their thinking and give them an opportunity to speak with LGBT Christians and if they choose to, they could explore a different view point. “For young people who are not out, these stands given them an affirming voice that the way they are feeling may not be bad and that having a conversation about what is going on for them, might lead them to an acceptance of themselves. “For LGBT Christians, this gives them how that the world will not always be a place that discriminates them. That progression is being made and that people are willing to stand up, get around them and support them.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 7th February 2017 - 2:24pm