Now and the next 45 years - Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras

Contents:

• FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS
• SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS
• SEMTICS SYDNEY’S GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS

They asked for solidary activi on the Stonewall anniversary to ci wh their march agast the anti-gay Briggs Iniative on the California ballot. Ken and others lled a meetg of lbian and gay groups and dividuals, which beme the Gay Solidary Group. Chants of “Out of the bars and to the streets” joed the sound of gay liberatn anthems ‘Glad to be Gay’ and ‘O to a Gym Teacher’.

The Gay Solidary Group, other groups and dividuals and me together for a massive polil and legal effort – the Drop the Charg mpaign. • 15 July – 2, 000 take part largt ever gay rights march wh 14 arrts. • 27 Augt – 300 march down Oxford St om the 4th Natnal Homosexual Conference wh 104 arrts.

This was the thori’ attempt to keep the muny le, but Sydney’s gays and lbians would not get back le. 2012 Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras. On 24 June 1978 a small group of gay and lbian people operatg as the Gay Solidary Group staged a day of events Sydney.

SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

The tentn was to promote gay and lbian culture and to enurage polil activism agast the discrimatn they routely group anised a tradnal march and public meetg the morng and a street para at night.

Lead-up to Mardi GrasThe Stonewall rts that began the early hours of 28 June 1969 New York Cy were the rult of a police raid on a gay bar lled the Stonewall rts are wily nsired to mark the start of the ternatnal gay rights March 1978 the San Francis based Gay Freedom Day Commtee ntacted Atralian activists llg for solidary activi to support a march planned on the anniversary of the Stonewall march was opposn to the ntroversial Briggs Iniative which if passed would have mandated the firg of gay and lbian teachers California public Gay Solidary Group formed Sydney to mark ‘Internatnal Gay Solidary Day’ on 24 June Atralia, var groups and anisatns had been lobbyg, stagg monstratns and march, producg newsletters and a variety of other activi to promote their e. Makg historyAtralian Lbian and Gay Archiv print Graham Willett scrib the 1978 Mardi Gras as the ‘most dramatic moment of the backlash’ agast the mpaign for gay rights. Addnally, laws around obtag perms for street march and paras were such, the first Mardi Gras march was a major civil rights tone beyond the gay muny.

SEMTICS SYDNEY’S GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

Michelle Arrow on first Gay Mardi Gras. Gatherg momentumCapalisg on this and on the wellsprg of support that had emerged, the gay muny cid to keep gog wh the ia of a ntued to mpaign on different aspects of discrimatn agast them, and this also began to translate to a ut acceptance of gay people as ctomers and employe. Bs terg to gay and lbian people also beme more open.

However, this was not uniformly weled by the gay muny.

For most of the early 1970s, radil gay activists had lled for the end of palism as an opprsive social force.

Public fear about AIDS was so great that anisers of the 1985 Mardi Gras were unr tense prsure to prsure, bed wh the shock of seeg iends, lovers and partners sicken and die, fostered a termatn and rilience wh the gay and lbian muny. Not1 Robert Swie, Judh O’Callaghan and Glynis Jon, Absolutely Mardi Gras: Costume and Dign of the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras, Powerhoe Publishg, Sydney, 1996, p. Pair of buckled slg back platform sho wh peek-a-boo toThe sho form part of Ron Munster's prize-wng 'Lucille Balls' stume worn at the 1994 Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras.

ReferencHistory of the event, Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi GrasRobert Swie, Judh O’Callaghan and Glynis Jon, Absolutely Mardi Gras: Costume and Dign of the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras, Powerhoe Publishg, Sydney, Willett, Livg out Loud: A History of Gay and Lbian Activism Atralia, Allen & Unw, 2000Richard Wherrett (ed. Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras March 2016.

A CROWD OF more than 400 gay, lbian and straight people ma their way along Oxford Street at 10pm on 24 June 1978. One, Ron At, says he wore a green Kaftan and had his hair an ao, others were more pared-back, some were chantg slogans support of Gay Solidary Celebratns beg held the world over. Earlier that year, Ken Davis and Anne Talve, two Sydney-based gay activists, received a letter om San Francis’s Gay Freedom Day mtee askg to support the 9th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts and the San Francis Gay Freedom Day para.