After LGBTQ Venue Opens in Former Sydney Church, Christians Shut It Down

Sydney, Australia's Divine Playhouse was supposed to become an inclusive home for queer artists. Instead, the venue was shut down after its very first performance because Christian protesters objected to irreverent religious parody inside a former church—a building that was deconsecrated nearly a century ago. Create NSW, a government agency, awarded the project $100,000, while parent organization Heaps Gay Events planned to invest another $650,000 to help support more than 1,500 creative workers. But after groups including Fit for the Kingdom and the Prodigal Sons protested, landlord KCSYD Pty Ltd canceled the lease. That’s a textbook heckler’s veto: Reward the people creating a disturbance by silencing the artists they targeted. Christians had every right to criticize the performance. They weren’t entitled to shut it down. If religious outrage can erase LGBTQ art after one night, every theater, museum, and library should be worried. This is a clip from my recent livestream: https://youtube.com/live/hRp-CF8j024 The article this is based on is here: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/ara... Join my channel to get access to special perks!    / @friendlyatheist1   ✔ Please support what I do:   / hemant   ✔ You can also make a one-time donation here: https://paypal.me/FriendlyAtheist ✔ Website: http://www.friendlyatheist.com/ ✔ Contact: [email protected] ✔ TikTok:   / friendly.atheist   ✔ Twitter:   / hemantmehta   ✔ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/friendlyathe... ✔ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... ✔ Instagram:   / friendly.atheist   ✔ Facebook:   / friendlyatheist   ✔ Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mMNzNs (My affiliate link) ✔ Twitch:   / mpromptu   ✔ Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/FriendlyAtheist