An LGBTQ arts venue opened in a former church in Australia. Christians shut it down.

Sydney’s Divine Playhouse became the latest victim of religious censorship after a single irreverent performance

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A new performance space in Sydney, Australia meant to showcase queer artists has been shut down after one night—all because the landlord and a group of Christian protesters objected to what happened onstage.

At the center of the conflict is the fact that this building used to be a church. Used to be. The building was deconsecrated in the 1930s and has since housed both a children’s school and a theater. Whatever religious significance it once had officially disappeared nearly a century ago.

The former church in Sydney (via Facebook)

More recently, with no one in the building, the New South Wales arts agency Create NSW awarded a $100,000 grant to Divine Playhouse to turn it into an inclusive space for artists. Its parent organization also pledged to invest $650,000 to support “more than 1,500 artists, producers, performers, technicians, small creative businesses and staff” over the one-year lease.

The organizers initially called it the “Unholy Playhouse” but abandoned that name after religious complaints. That concession was apparently not enough. When the venue finally opened last Wednesday, its artists enthusiastically embraced religious irreverence:

Catholic activists cited photos and videos shared from the venue’s opening night, including one of a performer dressed as a pig offering McDonald’s french fries as holy communion; performers dressed as nuns waving sex toys; and drag queens reenacting the birth of Christ.

I don’t know what show that was, but I want tickets.

It doesn’t matter if that production was offensive or not. It was for a willing audience inside a building that hadn’t been a church for generations. No one was forced to attend, much less applaud. Yet religious people protested outside and demanded the government rescind its $100,000 grant:

… the Catholic men’s group Fit for the Kingdom and Christian brotherhood the Prodigal Sons have claimed that the venue itself “mocks religious faith”, with about 70 supporters rallying there on Wednesday night and demanding that the New South Wales government withdraw a $100,000 grant…

The protesters essentially argued a former church could not possibly be a home for decidedly un-Christian art. One even argued that these performers could go anywhere else in the city:

“There is no shortage of venues across Sydney where the LGBTQ community is free to express itself and its artistic creativity,” a spokesperson from the Prodigal Sons said. “The selection of a former church is a deliberate and conscious decision.”

Or maybe it’s just a great performance space. Former churches have been converted to everything from skate parks to bars. The architecture and ambiance is the selling point. Just because Christians once occupied the space doesn’t mean it remains sacred forever.

Nevertheless, the protest had an impact because the next day, the owners of that building (“KCSYD Pty Ltd”) canceled the lease. They cited an obscure law that dates back to 1842 to make their case, though lawyers say that argument has never been tested in court. The company also said performers “insulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians” and argued that future protests could disturb “adjoining properties and to the general public,” making their decision “reasonable.” That’s a textbook case of a heckler’s veto; they’re rewarding the people threatening disruption by silencing the target of their protests.

(Also, it’s hard to believe any landlord would lease space to “Heaps Gay Events” without understanding what that might entail…)

Making the landlord’s sudden decision even harder to swallow is the fact that there’s already a proposal on the table to tear down the building (along with nearby structures) in order to build luxury apartments at a cost of over $55 million. Apparently drag queens performing in the former church is a step too far, but demolishing the building is perfectly fine. That also means the decision to cancel the lease feels pointless; Divine Playhouse would have been out of there by this time next year.

For a short while, the group couldn’t even speak to supporters directly on social media because the platforms shut down their accounts on grounds of potentially offensive speech. But once that was cleared up and the accounts were reopened, Divine Playhouse explained the situation, saying they were exploring their legal options.

This has now become a battle about free speech and censorship. As the group pointed out, “Not every work will resonate with every person, but the freedom to make and experience art is part of what makes an open, creative and democratic society.” They’re currently looking for an alternative space. They’re also asking supporters to join them in protest of this censorship this weekend:

A fundraiser has also been created to help Heaps Gay founder Kat Dopper cover legal expenses. And a petition with nearly 18,000 signatures is calling on NSW Premier Chris Minns to provide emergency funding to the group to help them relocate and ensure they can be a home for the arts without censorship.

The good news in all this chaos is that several politicians understood the stakes and publicly sided with the artists.

When speaking at the venue’s opening on Wednesday, [Sydney’s deputy lord mayor, Jess] Miller celebrated the space as a place for community. “What happens between us when we come to places like this is we create [like] cathedral communities that are ultimately so much stronger for being together than for being split,” she said.

…

The NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said Divine Playhouse should be celebrated as the kind of venue Sydney “desperately needs more of” and called on the state minister for music and the night-time economy, John Graham, to “publicly defend Divine Playhouse, its organisers, staff, artists and patrons”.

“[Graham] should make it clear that the government will stand with artists, venue operators and Sydney’s queer community, not with those trying to shut them down.”

Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore was also supportive, saying that “Sydney’s queer communities deserve places to create, perform, laugh, dance and belong” and that the closure of the venue was “disappointing and concerning.”

Not everyone was on board, of course:

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, told the Daily Telegraph government officials were investigating the grant application made by the venue’s organisers and said it was “hard to believe” the building was the “best location” for the performances by Divine Playhouse’s artists.

“There are millions of [other] venues,” he said.

The independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich said Sydney needed a wake-up call.

“What has happened with ‘Divine Playhouse’ is part of a worrying trend and I’m concerned that Sydney’s reputation is suffering as a global city,” he said.

James Thorpe, the “vice-chair of the Night Time Industries Association, founder of Odd Culture Group and a PhD researcher in nightlife safety,” penned an excellent column highlighting why this fight mattered. As someone who grew up in a church, he said this was the ideal space to push back against religion:

There is something rather audacious in telling queer people raised under the shadow of the cross that Christian iconography belongs exclusively to those who remained faithful to the institution. We are entitled to wrestle with it, parody it and subvert it. In many cases, it is part of our story too.

He noted that there are plenty of conservative Christians who make horribly offensive statements about LGBTQ people, yet he never sees calls for churches to be shut down as a result:

I find those views profoundly offensive but I have never demanded church doors be closed or tried to control what is said from their pulpits. I have never suggested [homophobic bigot Lyle] Shelton should be denied the taxpayer-funded salary he is seeking in the NSW parliament because I find his politics offensive. Nor have I demanded that religious organisations return the immense tax concessions they receive because I object to the speech they enable.

…

A liberal society cannot reserve public support for ideas nobody objects to. There would be precious little culture, politics or religion left. Christians may preach, protest and stand outside a queer venue and pray. They may tell me my life is sinful and my family is wrong. Queer artists have the same right to make art that is confronting, irreverent and, yes, offensive.

That is the bargain we make in a liberal democracy. It has to go both ways.

And then, in a reminder that the culture wars we see in the U.S. are no different from the ones in Australia, he added: “Australia is not a Christian nation.”

That’s exactly the point. If Christian groups can shut down a queer venue simply by protesting loudly enough, then every theater, museum, and library should be alarmed. Anything can be a “disturbance” if opponents complain aggressively enough. That’s why punishing the targets of that harassment emboldens the would-be censors.

Ideally, this decision to cancel the lease will backfire. The Christian groups will be mocked for their outrage. The landlords will receive negative press. And Divine Playhouse will hopefully get donations, publicity, and public support, which could mean larger crowds at future events and an even better space to hold events. The people who wanted these performances to disappear may have created far more demand for them.

This isn’t just about being offensive for the sake of it. Conservative churches have spent years telling LGBTQ people that their identities and relationships are sinful. It’s why reclaiming Christian symbols, through mockery or obscenity, is so damn satisfying. For so many people who have been harmed by religion, the irreverence is cathartic.

That’s why offensive art should be protected—and sometimes even celebrated. It’s not that every piece is brilliant. It’s that the very existence of this sort of art helps take away the power of those symbols. The freedom of expression matters far more than how some people interpret that expression.

Christians were free to hate the performance. They were free to protest outside, pray for everyone involved, and warn the public that God was furious about the sex toys and french fry communion. But they weren’t entitled to shut down the venue. The “offense” caused by one evening of queer performance is nothing compared to the lifelong harm inflicted by religious zealots who tell LGBTQ people their very existence is an affront to God.

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