The Victorian Pride Lobby is calling for trans and gender diversity training among Melbourne's Smith Street venue community following "an incident of transphobia on Monday 8th March 2021 at a popular venue on Smith Street, Collingwood". 

The organisation has issued a statement following the incident saying that "a security guard attempted to evict a woman from the women’s bathrooms in the venue, 'insisting that she was a man, yelling aggressively at her twice, and telling her to use the men’s bathroom'..." 

"Following the incident, the woman was able to speak to the venue’s management, along with the security guard," continued the statement. 

"The venue agreed to do better by making a commitment to engage in trans and gender diverse workplace training and to consider reconfigurations of bathrooms beyond binary gendered spaces to better accommodate the needs of all patrons."

It has since been reported by The Age that the incident involved prominent Melbourne musician Simona Castricum and Collingwood venue Yah Yah's. 

The story goes on to share that both the venue management and staff had apologised to Castricum following incident and that she believes the venue shouldn't be boycotted and that the venue should instead lead by example and commit to education. 

The Victorian Pride Lobby has said that they "call for venues, businesses, and spaces to expand their efforts on LGBTIQA+ inclusion - on Smith Street, in the City of Yarra, and across the state" through a commitment to trans and gender diverse training for all staff, including contracted staff, to implementing the Transgender and Gender Diverse Inclusion Best Practice Guidelines For Live Music Venues (view here), considering and making appropriate changes to bathrooms beyond binary gendered spaces to accommodate the needs of all patrons, flying a transgender flag or display transgender stickers in support and allyship to the trans and gender diverse community and displaying a poster against transphobia. 

Find out more information about the Victorian Pride Lobby here.