**EDIT: For The Love have just now (Saturday morning) gotten in touch with me privately and have said that they will be further investigating the issue. Thank you so much to everybody who made some noise and helped to get their attention 💛**
I’ve never been one for public complaints but this is something that I think is really important. Sorry in advance for the novel.
Last saturday, I went to For The Love in Perth. Amazing lineup, great setup, all round solid time. Around 8…pm, I was sitting on the grass with another girl and we were kissing and talking. We were not bothering anybody nearby; we were not being loud or disruptive or offensive in any way whatsoever. We didn’t even have drinks with us at the time.
A member of security approached us and told us that we were being kicked out of the festival. I asked what we had done wrong, and was simply told that we were too intoxicated and needed to go.
Neither I nor my friend were being anything but respectful to the people around us. We were not too drunk or causing any problems - we were just kissing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the security guard really took offence to - I had seen countless heterosexual couples, far drunker than us, all up in each others’ faces all day with no complaint from security.
This was the first time I’ve been made to feel small and unwelcome due to my sexuality. I never want to feel this way again but unfortunately, we’ve still got a long way to come with LGBTQ+ discrimination.
I contacted the event organisers a week ago, through two different platforms, and have been left on read.
My friend and I wasted hundreds of dollars on tickets for the two main acts that we never got to see, because we dared to show affection in public.
I’m really nervous to post this, and I’m not doing it to make waves or point fingers. I’m doing this to bring attention to the fact that there is STILL WORK TO BE DONE here. That the event organisers clearly don’t care enough to even reply to my message, let alone try and resolve the issue. And to just talk about it, because if no one says anything, nothing changes.
@For The Love, live up to your name. Your move.
