A games night held during Pride Month has been such a hit, it is about to become a regular fixture on the Harbour Street Collective Cafe calendar.

The Ōamaru cafe's owner Kat Rivison said she was not sure how a queer games night would go, when she decided to hold one in mid-March. 

“We had some decorations up for Pride Month, and even just from that we had so many people coming into the cafe and just kind of saying how great that it was,” she said. 

She got the idea after travelling to Timaru where there is a monthly drinks meet-up for the queer community.

“I kind of asked there if there was anything local, or if there had been anything local in the past, and the one who was organising Timaru’s Pride Month, she said that they would promote something if we did it, so it was kind of that little nudge.”

About 15 people were at the inaugural evening, which was an encouraging number, she said.

Queer spaces help people feel more connected with their town and neighbours, in a positive and safe environment, she said.

"When people are comfortable and supported we grow and connect in ways that strengthen the entire community."

There have now been two evenings, and Kat had received a lot of messages from people saying they would come if it became more of a regular thing.

A regular cafe customer, who used to run a youth meet-up in Ōamaru told Kat there was definite interest, which also spurred her on.

“People were commenting on how there isn’t very much locally, which I had kind of noticed, but hadn’t really looked into.”

She has decided to run the games nights on the second Wednesday of every month, after the cafe closed to customers at 4pm.

The evenings were for anyone who wanted to join and would be a safe space, Kat said.

"Having a place for people to socialise, while feeling safe in public, is something most of us take for granted, and is incredibly valuable for anyone looking to make new friends," she said. 

Following the recent visit of British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, and her quick departure after she had tomato juice thrown on her in a public protest, Kat said she wanted to focus on the positives that could be taken from the incident.

“There’s been a huge support New Zealand-wide, which is important. 

“There’s been some talk around the cafe, and the little bit of talk I have heard locally is [about] the difference between free speech and hate speech, and I feel like there’s an important difference.

“Some of the talk . . . had kind of been, ‘well what’s the other side?’, and in my opinion, it’s not that she deserves free speech, it’s that you know, it is hate speech and it is damaging.

“So, I’m really glad with the support that the trans community’s gained, and yeah, really that strong message that we’ve sent out is great.”

Kat has been running the Collective Cafe for nine months now, after moving from Wellington, and said overall the community had been supportive.

Ensuring the work environment was calm and “less stressful” was important to her.

“I’ve worked in lots of different hospitality venues and some of them have been really stressful and some of them haven’t. 

“Whenever I’ve hired new staff, I’ve kind of chatted to them about the work environment that we have.”

Finding staff had been hard, and a lot at the cafe were young and new to the workforce, “which has its own separate stress”.

“But, it actually has made a really nice environment . . . We’ve got a lot of really enthusiastic youth, which is great.

“I’ve just got lucky. We’ve got a really nice group of staff who all get along, and they’re really good kids.”

In the near future Kat also planned to be able to provide a space for creative youth. Oamaru had a strong artist community, but opportunities for younger people were limited, so she wanted to “focus a bit of energy” on that, she said.

“There’s a lot of clubs and activities for youth who are involved in sport, but not so much for youth who are involved in arts.”