Powerful Pride performance

THIS year’s Bendigo Pride Festival will include a unique look into family and gendered violence faced by LGBTQIA+ communities.

A one-man show from Russ Vickery called My Other Closet, the Cabaret will take place on Sunday, 20 March from 5pm to 7pm at the Engine Room on View Street.

The show aims to dispel the myth that intimate part violence does not occur in LGBTQ relationships through Vickery’s first-hand recount as a domestic violence survivor.

“At first I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. It was so unexpected. It took some time for me to realise that this was abusive, this was manipulative. And unfortunately, this is a common experience for LGBTQ survivors,” Vickery said.

Vickery, a father of three in his 50s, takes the audience through a journey of his life, beginning in gay nightclubs in Melbourne in the 1970s, through a 17-year heterosexual marriage, to coming out, to entering his first same gender relationship, in which he suffered physical and emotional abuse.

Prior to the show, an LGBT family violence professional training day, titled The Dark Side of the Rainbow, will be held on Friday, 18 March at the Bendigo Bank Room of the Capital Theatre from 9.30am to 4pm.

The day is for family violence victim services in the region to learn how they can support members of the rainbow community experiencing abuse.

“Domestic and gender-based violence is never ok and the City is pleased to support the LGBTQIA+ community through these two events,” City of Greater Bendigo mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf said.

Bookings for Vickery’s show can be made at myotherclosetthecabaret.com.