#australian queer history

[asynca]

Anyone who’s interested in ‘Australia’s Stonewall Moment’ will be interested in reading about the ‘78ers: the first marchers in what they coined the ‘Mardi Gras’ which turned violent after police blocked them off and began to violently arrest people. 

Tonight, 45 years later, Sydney hosts World Pride 2023 and the 45th Mardi Gras parade and it’s a huge celebrated event. 

We’ve got a long way to go - but we also need to celebrate our tenacity, our survival and how far we’ve come. 

[queerasfact]

Queer as Fact is back tomorrow with an episode on an entire queer country, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands - get excited!

[Image: A sign on a beach which reads “Welcome to Heaven, Cato Island Post Code 0000, Capital of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom, www.gayandlesbiankingdom.com” draped with a rainbow flag, next to a post box labelled “Royal Gay Mail”]

[bearmustard]

Watching the doc about the making of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and it is heartbreaking and inspiring because the people who came before us had to deal with so much awful shit but they dealt with it so incredibly well.

[asynca]

Does Australia have pride celebrations too?

We do! But because Stonewall Inn is American and the riots are American, we don’t celebration June as Pride month.

We have what used to be called ‘Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras’ but which is now just called ‘Mardi Gras’, in Sydney in Feb & March. It’s a massive month-event that millions of people attend. The centerpiece is the incredible parade. 

(the Dykes on Bikes that always lead the whole parade - it’s so exciting when the parade starts because you hear this WILD revving of 100 motorcycles and then everyone cheeeeeers because it’s starting!).

In June 1978, queer folks organised a gay rights protest march (actually in solidarity to the riots that had been going on in the US since 1969) and then were subsequently arrested afterwards. The state newspaper named and shamed everyone arrested so they’d be fired and ostracized by their families. As a result of that, the protests continued, but were moved to February. After 1984, when homosexuality was decriminalised they slowly morphed from being marches to being celebrations of triumph against adversity and pride. There’s still a heavy focus on campaigning for change, but the mood of the parade is one of great celebration. 

Interestingly, in the 1980s, lesbians did not participate in Mardi Gras. There isn’t info about this online, but radical feminism and lesbian-centering was super big in Australia in the 1980s so it’s likely they thought the parade was a testosterone brigade and didn’t focus enough on lesbians and therefore refused to be part of it. Anyway it didn’t last and in the 1990s (when I started watching & participating!) lesbians were many and welcome (and welcoming). 

I’ve been in the Mardi Gras parade a few times: nothing beats the feeling of marching with your head held high and a million people cheering!

-

In addition to the Sydney Mardi Gras, there’s the Melbourne Midsumma Festival (another month-long Pride event) which has its own, smaller pride parade and also the very, very fun Midsumma Carnival. 

There’s also likely to be celebrations in other states that I’m not aware of because I’m not from there.