In December 2021, Victoria Police held a 'community and policing panel' to discuss police accountability, transparency and low levels of community trust.

The event was closed to media, attended by armed police and hosted by a pro-police media organisation. For these and other reasons, the event was attended mainly by representatives of service organisations with very little community representation.

We believe that community deserve a space to honestly discuss these issues, so we are running a free LGBTQ Community Forum on 27 October 2022.

Our event aims to progress the conversation about the difficult relationship between Victoria Police and LGBTQ communities, and further explore the issues around their participation in Pride.

We are fundraising to cover costs and pay our speakers, so please pitch in if you are able. You can donate via Humanitix when you RSVP or via direct bank transfer.

The event will comprise an opening presentation (TBA), and a panel discussion followed by a Q&A. We are developing a covid plan, the venue is wheelchair accessible and light refreshments will be available for purchase.

Please note that we have not invited Victoria Police to ensure the event is safe for all to attend.

No Police at Pride acknowledges that we are guests on the land of Wurundjeri people where we plan to meet and would like to pay our heartfelt regard to past and current Elders. Aboriginal sovereignty over these lands and waters was never lawfully ceded and the violence of colonisation is ongoing.

Speakers

Please note that all speakers are appearing in a personal capacity only.

Dylan O'Hara

Dylan O'Hara (they/them) is a sex worker and manager of Vixen, Victoria's peer sex worker organisation, based on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Vixen is proudly 100% by and for sex workers, and has led the Victorian campaign for the full decriminalisation of sex work for many years.

Paul Kidd

Paul Kidd (he/him) is a queer HIV-positive activist, lawyer and writer. He is a long-standing advocate against the policing, surveillance and criminalisation of our communities, especially people living with HIV. He is currently a senior criminal lawyer at Fitzroy Legal Service, vice-president of Thorne Harbour Health, and secretary of the HIV Justice Network.

Tarneen Onus-Williams

Tarneen Onus Williams (they/them) is a proud Gunditjmara, Bindal, Yorta Yorta person and Torres Strait Islander from Mer and Erub islands. Tarneen living on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples. Tarneen is a community organiser for Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance working on Invasion Day, Black Deaths in Custody and Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities in WA.

They are a filmmaker and writer and have been published in IndigenousX, The Saturday Paper, NITV and RightNow. Tarneen’s film “young mob questioning treaty” has been screened internationally at ImagineNATIVE in Toronto and Tampere Film Festival in Finland. Tarneen works as the Community Legal Educator at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.

Witt Gorrie

Witt Gorrie (they/he) is a white trans abolitionist social worker. They are based in Naarm and have worked alongside communities impacted by criminalisation for the past decade. Since 2018 Witt has been developing Beyond Bricks & Bars: Trans and Gender Diverse Decarceration Project alongside trans and gender diverse people currently and formerly incarcerated in Victoria.

Beyond Bricks & Bars exists to reduce the rates of trans and gender diverse people becoming incarcerated, to prevent further criminalisation and to support their community's survival while inside prisons. They are also a committee member of the Incarcerated Trans and Gender Diverse Community Fund that provides financial and material aid to trans and gender diverse people in prison and those returning home to their communities.