{"id":799381,"date":"2026-07-14T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799381\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:00:17","slug":"lgbtq-pop-up-in-former-sydney-church-ordered-by-landlord-to-cancel-events-after-religious-protest-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799381\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ+ pop-up in former Sydney church ordered by landlord to cancel events after religious protest | Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deconsecrated Sydney<\/a> church newly transformed into an LGBTQ+ venue has had to cancel events and been ordered to stop \u201cengaging in offensive trade\u201d by its landlord after religious groups protested against its opening night.<\/p>\n

Divine Playhouse opened last Wednesday with the intention of being a safe and inclusive space for artists to work and connect with audiences, its organiser said.<\/p>\n

The 150-year-old building, in the heart of Sydney\u2019s central business district, has not been a church since it was deconsecrated in the 1930s. It was later turned into a children\u2019s school and a theatre.<\/p>\n

The new venue changed its name from Unholy Playhouse at the last minute, after concerns were raised by people from the Christian community. Now the Catholic men\u2019s group Fit for the Kingdom and Christian brotherhood the Prodigal Sons have claimed that the venue itself \u201cmocks religious faith\u201d, with about 70 supporters rallying there on Wednesday night and demanding that the New South Wales<\/a> government withdraw a $100,000 grant Divine Playhouse received from the state\u2019s arts agency, Create NSW.<\/p>\n

Performers at Divine Playhouse\u2019s opening night last week. Photograph: Anna Hay<\/p>\n

The next day the landlords sent a notice of breach to the venue\u2019s organiser, Heaps Gay Events, claiming it \u201cinsulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians\u201d and giving it two days to cease operation.<\/p>\n

The venue cancelled weekend events and its future remains uncertain. The Divine Playhouse and Heaps Gay Instagram accounts have been taken down due to complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe note that the trade carried on by HG Events has been the subject of significant protest and public criticism, given its offensive nature,\u201d says the notice of breach, which has been seen by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

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It adds: \u201cSuch offensive trade has caused, and will continue to cause, grievance and disturbance to owners of adjoining properties and to the general public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn circumstances where future public protests are almost certain to occur and are likely to endanger members of the public, our client considers that the time by which the offensive trade is to cease is reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The playhouse was ordered to \u201ccease engaging in offensive trade\u201d by Saturday or potentially have its lease terminated. The lawyers representing the landlord did not answer the Guardian\u2019s request for comment before publication.<\/p>\n

James Thorpe, the founder of hospitality organisation Odd Culture Group and co-chair of the Night Time Industries Association, has called the situation \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d and raised questions about the impact it would have across the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom cannot mean the freedom to say what you believe while demanding silence from everyone who disagrees,\u201d Thorpe wrote in a LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor generations, queer people have fought for places to gather, perform, be loud, irreverent, joyful and entirely ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians have a right to preach, protest and stand outside Divine Playhouse and pray. Queer artists have the right to make art that is confronting, irreverent and, yes, offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promoter Kat Dopper speaks at the venue\u2019s launch. Photograph: Anna Hay<\/p>\n

Sydney\u2019s deputy lord mayor, Jess Miller, shared Thorpe\u2019s statement on Instagram, adding that she \u201ccould not agree more\u201d.<\/p>\n

When speaking at the venue\u2019s opening on Wednesday, Miller celebrated the space as a place for community. \u201cWhat 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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The Divine Playhouse promoter and founder of Heaps Gay, Kat Dopper, said at the launch that the idea for the venue was to be \u201csuper accessible for arts and culture communities to use without having to spend a million bucks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot wait to see what Sydney independent arts and culture does with the space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said Divine Playhouse should be celebrated as the kind of venue Sydney \u201cdesperately needs more of\u201d and called on the state minister for music and the night-time economy, John Graham, to \u201cpublicly defend Divine Playhouse, its organisers, staff, artists and patrons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Graham] should make it clear that the government will stand with artists, venue operators and Sydney\u2019s queer community, not with those trying to shut them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In separate statements, the Prodigal Sons and Fit for the Kingdom told Guardian Australia they were not seeking to silence anyone; instead they wanted to underscore, in the Prodigal Sons\u2019 words, \u201chow deeply this material has wounded a community of faith\u201d.<\/p>\n

The groups said they took issue with photos and videos shared from the venue\u2019s opening night, including one of a performer dressed as a pig offering McDonald\u2019s french fries as holy communion. A spokesperson from Fit for the Kingdom decried what it saw as \u201chateful blasphemy that mocks what we hold most sacred\u201d, listing \u201cperformers dressed as nuns waving sex toys\u201d and \u201cdrag queens reenacting the birth of Christ\u201d as examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no shortage of venues across Sydney where the LGBTQ community is free to express itself and its artistic creativity,\u201d a spokesperson from the Prodigal Sons said. \u201cThe selection of a former church is a deliberate and conscious decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The furore engulfing the venue has been amplified on social media by Christian influencers including Spanian and the conservative Family First party Australia.<\/p>\n

Religious groups are expected to gather at Divine Playhouse on Friday to \u201cjoin in prayer for the souls of the people behind this desecration\u201d. Officers will be present at the protest, a NSW police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The City of Sydney is considering a proposal<\/a> to redevelop the church into luxury apartments.<\/p>\n

Miller, Create NSW and Dopper have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deconsecrated Sydney church newly transformed into an LGBTQ+ venue has had to cancel events and been ordered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-799381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}