When activists in June 1978 wanted to get gay men to protest for their rights in Sydney, they decided to consider it a party and called it “Mardi Gras”.
“Out of the bars and into the streets” was the chant as protesters went from venue to venue along Oxford Street to collect new participants in a protest calling for the end of the criminalisation of homosexuality.
“We chanted that in the bars, but the bar owners didn’t like it because it meant they lost clients,” Peter de Waal says. “We had to do it really quickly, but then some people joined us, which was really good.”
About 500 people gathered as the protest made its way down the street to Hyde Park where there was a “whole human barricade of police”. Fifty-three protesters were arrested and suffered violence at the hands of police that led to public apologies nearly 40 years later.
In the decades since, the parade has evolved with the times. The protest elements remain but there is an increasing focus on the celebration. It has long been held at the end of the summer season, with the heritage-listed route starting at Hyde Park.
Now, in its 45th year, there are more than 200 floats in the parade, with political parties, police and corporations such as ANZ Bank, Amex and Meta, among others, now routinely marching alongside community groups.
In 2018, then Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull turned up on the parade route with his wife, Lucy, as did NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian and Cher just months after the same-sex marriage law passed, but Turnbull did not march.
However, on Saturday 25 February, 2023, Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Australian prime minister to march in the parade.
The sheer number of floats now seeking to take part has resulted in only about 70% of those applying being accepted to march, and those who had previously marched have had their numbers cut down to allow other participants to be involved.
The NRL and the NSW Teachers’ Federation are among those reportedly cut from the parade entirely.
The increasing commercialisation of the protest and the inclusion of corporations and political parties which at times are seen to work against the interests of the LGBTQ+ community remains an ongoing source of tension for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
“By allowing floats that are being put up by groups that have historically and continue to oppress the LGBTQ community, you’re expressing that that type of behaviour is OK or that the queer community is willing to compromise on our rights and our needs to satisfy the dominant mindset of what queer should look like,” Pride in Protest member Yasmin Andrews says.
For many, it can feel jarring to see parties that run anti-trans candidates turn up to march in the parade, or bank brands marching with expensive floats at a time when those same banks are reporting massive profits from rising interest rates that are making it harder for others to afford to just attend the parade.
The involvement of politicians has even led to clashes in the parade, such as in 2016 when No Pride in Detention protested against then Labor leader, Bill Shorten, marching in the parade.
Pride in Protest has long fought against the inclusion of corporations, police and politicians in the parade, and has previously petitioned Mardi Gras members -without success - to vote to ban them from the parade altogether.
Elaine Czulkowski, associate director of operations at Pride in Diversity – an organisation that works with businesses on LGBTQ+ inclusion – sees the inclusion of corporations in the parade differently. Their growing incorporation in the parade from the early 2000s came as the Coalition and Labor party supported a ban on same-sex marriage and then took close to 13 years to reverse the ban.
Getting corporations on board put pressure on the government, she says.
“Of course, Mardi Gras is always a parade for protest and campaigning and community organisations,” she says, “but corporates have a place there because they have employees who are LGBTQ who want to march. They have allies in the workplace who want to march with the LGBTQ colleagues.
“And these organisations are doing the work behind the scenes, as well. Their inclusive policies, education, information, visibility within the workplace. They’re doing all this work constantly. So it’s not just a one off, once a year thing, ‘look at us with glitter’.”
The Pride in Diversity program in particular has faced attacks from anti-trans groups in the past few months, but Czulkowski says corporations have not backed down from their support.
Mardi Gras chief executive, Albert Kruger, says corporate partner floats make up just 14% of the overall floats, and a 2021 survey revealed only 18% of those polled saw an issue with the participation of corporates in the parade.
“We choose partners who reflect the values held closely by the LGBTQIA+ community,” he says.
He says they contributed more than $160,000 to fund LGBTQ+ groups, businesses and artists as part of the Mardi Gras community grants program in 2022. He says the inclusion of political parties recognises that Mardi Gras itself must stand for inclusion.
“We must recognise there are LGTBQIA+ people who belong to both the major parties and many of the minor parties – and that is how they choose to express themselves at the parade.”
With the 45th anniversary coinciding with WorldPride in Sydney, De Waal says Mardi Gras will be showcasing a lot of glamour and love, but worries it is not balanced with the fight for rights.
“During the recent federal government era of [Scott] Morrison and his crowd, there were so many opportunities for the parade to be political, but it was all glitter and glamour and all fun,” he says.
“I’m not saying to have fun is wrong, it’s important to celebrate victories, but to my mind it wasn’t balance. There were big, big issues out there.”
He says some in the community may be forgetting where it all began.
“There’s a lot of grief still about [the protest] among us older people,” he says.
