'It is important to hear people': IDAHOBIT day helps combat discrimination

But there is still more to achieve, especially when it comes to regional communities, according to Tamworth Pride Inc. president William Weller.

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17 will help to shine a spotlight on LGBTIQA+ rights violations and will be marked locally with a special event.

"It highlights a lot of the stuff we go through and some of it can be quite confronting as well," Mr Weller said.

"We have seen a lot in the media focused on our community, but not in a good way.

"So, it is important to hear people, see what other people have been through, and empathise with them. Then bring that all together and find a way to move forward with a plan of action on how we can reduce these situations."

To raise awareness for this year's IDAHOBIT day, Tamworth Pride Inc. will host a cocktail party at the Tamworth Regional Gallery on Saturday, May 18.

Mr Weller said the night will allow members of the community to open up and share their own experiences.

"Listening to other people's stories and listening to them without bias and judgement," he said.

"It will allow people to tell their stories when they may be quite confronting."

The night will feature a number of special guest speakers, who will talk about their own experiences.

All profits raised from the event will support Tamworth headspace.

"We are seeing a lot of mental health coming out in our youth community," Mr Weller said.

"It is an area that we struggle to connect to, so we wanted to keep trying to connect them and help services that can support them."

Tamworth headspace Youth and Community Engagement Officer Jessica Downey said Tamworth Pride Inc. will have input into how the funds will be used.

"We gave them the options, so if they want, it will go into clinical resources, community engagement and we can run an event or activity for the pride community," she said.

"Whether they want us to run more in-house LGBTIQA+ groups,. We sort of give them an option.

"The majority of the time, we ask them what they would like to see and we progress by putting some ideas together."