How the histori of Mardi Gras and gay tourism Atralia are tertwed

Contents:

• INSI THE UNDISVERED GAY MARDI GRAS
• A NOLA HISTORY OF GAY MARDI GRAS | GAY NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS
• GAY CARNIVAL
• SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS
• THE SECRET GOLN AGE OF GAY MARDI GRAS BALLS
• FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS
• BT GAY CLUBS NEW ORLEANS
• A TREASURE TROVE OF VTAGE GAY MARDI GRAS IMAG
• SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS SPOTLIGHTS ASIA-PACIFIC REGN PRI

INSI THE UNDISVERED GAY MARDI GRAS

From annual extravaganzas thrown by gay Mardi Gras krew to block parti that ve you to leave your hibns at home, every day of gay Carnival is an opportuny to show up as you are, wherever you are. In Carnival tradn, Twelfth Night marks the mencement of the season’s paras and ftivi, and the Mystik Krewe la Rue Royale Revelers kicks off style wh a night of grand, gay jubilatn at the Mardi Gras Mm of Costum and Culture. Everythg om the outlandish and satiril to the formal and refed feels right at home this legendary Bal Masque, which ntu to sell tickets to the public to pass on the history and grand tradn of gay Mardi Gras.

Found at a time when anti-gay laws were still place much of the untry, this Krewe has long been revered for s ditn to ung the LGBTQ muny, even when was dangero or difficult to do so. Tap to your bawdy si wh the only krewe the untry that specifilly ters to the gay leather muny while promotg tn, raisg public awarens, and dismantlg stigmatizatn of this often-overlooked (and prejudged) queer subculture.

A NOLA HISTORY OF GAY MARDI GRAS | GAY NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS

The LGBTQ muny tak the spotlight at ftivals all year long, wh Southern Dence over Labor Day weekend attractg more than 125, 000 revelers to what’s e to be known as Gay Mardi Gras. Paras, stum, drag shows and themed parti abound durg Dence, then aga they’re a part of the cy’s Pri Ft, Mardi Gras, Halloween ftivi and even Easter, where the Gay Easter Para is one of three the French Quarter. The story of New Orleans' gay Mardi Gras was born durg a time when people who did not openly intify as heterosexual faced legal discrimatn and rtrictns not only the cy, but throughout the Uned Stat.

GAY CARNIVAL

Acrdg to Edward McDaniel, who is the current ball pta and the 60th queen of the world's olst gay Mardi Gras krewe, the Krewe of Petroni, there were laws still on the books about homosexualy the 1960s. Acrdg to Petroni' webse, the krewe's members were actually succsful gettg a state charter and rporated themselv as a legimate Mardi Gras krewe 1966, th beg Louisiana's first officially regnized gay krewe. Dpe facg many hardships like the AIDS crisis, Hurrine Katra, the COVID-19 panmic, and so much more, New Orleans' gay Carnival krew are still workg hard to keep their tradns gog every year.

Gay Carnival tradns began mid-twentieth-century New Orleans as a genr-bendg parody of ele Mardi Gras tradns, particularly the humorls ronatn balls of aristocratic, segregated clubs like Rex and the Mistick Krewe of Com. After the rise of gay Carnival krew the 1960s and 1970s, queer culture beme a mastay of Carnival New Orleans and a force for LGBTQ+ visibily and muny engagement Louisiana. Gay life and maskg beme rrelated ncepts this era, as gay men often lerally masked themselv while Mardi Gras stume and also symbolilly masked themselv as “bachelors” to avoid discrimatn when Carnival end.

When the Krewe of Yuga, the first gay Mardi Gras krewe, formed 1958, they took genr-play to a new level by holdg private drag balls, where gay men put on women’s attire and prented themselv as “queens, ” or godss figur.

SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS

Although Yuga was no more, s spir flourished through former members, and the krew of Petroni (1961), Amon-Ra (1965), Ganyme (1967), Olymp (1970), and Apollo (1970) formed out of whe gay cliqu, mirrorg the racial segregatn of Louisiana. Gog “legimate, ” as Petroni -founr Bill Wooley put , had the effect of gay krew upgradg their balls to formal affairs requirg tuxedos, gowns, and/or upsle drag and tickets mand at the door. A typil gay ball New Orleans differed markedly om mastream balls by elimatg tilln-like procsns of upper-cst women and makg gay men the stars of each “table, ” or staged scen wh stume, mic, and dér curated around a theme.

THE SECRET GOLN AGE OF GAY MARDI GRAS BALLS

” The populary and productn value of gay balls creased si by si, and gay krewe members began vtg hundreds, if not thoands, of dollars each year to premier extravagant ball tablex (French for “tables” and the preferred term krewe lgo) to gay society. Startg the mid-1960s gay krew began formally petg for “bt of” tl at the annual Bourbon Street Awards, where rhton and glter led the 900 block of Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras Day. In 1969 Orleans Parish District Attorney Jim Garrison’s famo trial outed ele New Orleanian Clay Shaw by accg Shaw of nspirg to assassate Print Kennedy as a “homosexual thrill killg.

In rponse to a planned 1977 ncert seri at the Municipal Audorium for celebry sger and anti-homosexual spokperson Ana Bryant, all but two gay krew joed a polil aln lled Human Equal Rights for Everyone (HERE).

Opposg Bryant’s views and nttg the public funds supportg her vis, HERE anized one of the largt gay rights ralli the early history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement Louisiana at New Orleans’s Jackson Square. Legacy krew such as Amon-Ra and Petroni as well as the more ntemporary Lords of Leather, a leather-liftyle-oriented gay Carnival krewe, crafted or amend bylaws to accept female membership. In 1985, gay krew New Orleans worked vertly wh sympathetic Roman Catholic prit Bob Pawell to nvert an empty nvent the Marigny neighborhood to an AIDS hospice lled Project Lazas.

FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS

“Image kgs and queens of gay Mardi Gras scbbg the floors tryg to make the place prentable, ” relled gay Carnival veteran Albert Carey, who served as rmal archect of the project. Though gay krew face a generatnal dilemma, wh gay men now openly servg as kgs and ptas of mastream krew and gay-exclive spac disappearg natnwi, gay Carnival remas a highlight of Mardi Gras season New Orleans, Lafayette, Hoton, and Mobile.

BT GAY CLUBS NEW ORLEANS

” Louisiana State Mm The flamboyant stum, the arne ctoms, the meldg of the genteel to the occult, the heapg rabows of beads: New Orleans Mardi Gras seems almost herently, stereotypilly gay. It was only a matter of time before gay men breached the ball divi wh high mp flourish, dazzlg drag subversn and feathered headpiec that often towered five or more feet the air.

” Louisiana State Mm The orig and history of gay Carnival krew is the subject of an extensively rearched, forthg book by Smh, the first of s kd, due Febary om Universy Prs of Mississippi. Acrdg to Smh, a tightkn gay culture formed around several Bourbon Street bars like Miss Dixie’s Bar of Mic and Bourbon Hoe, which, like bars around the untry, protected their gay patrons wh “pay-offs and backdoor als. ) Along wh the Starle Room, Mack’s and the Renzvo, the spots formed a gay bar-hoppg circu that attracted lumari like playwright Tennee Williams, thor John Rechy and fashn photographer Jack Robson.

A TREASURE TROVE OF VTAGE GAY MARDI GRAS IMAG

But gay krew, by providg a work of theatril stag for elaborate urt tablex that prented several people “stume, ” allowed queens and their rts to drs as outrageoly as they wanted. Inspired by Smh’s book rearch, the Louisiana State Mm, unr Carnival Collectn curator Wayne Phillips, has started to llect the stum, sketch, flyers and photographs of the gay krewe scene.

SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS SPOTLIGHTS ASIA-PACIFIC REGN PRI

Last year, a lively panel was nvened at the mm that brought together a dozen of the origal gay krewe members to talk about their experience and brg the tradn out of the shadows. This end up nnectg the para wh Mardi Gras, and they’ve merged to form what is now lled Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras (which is sentially both Pri and Mardi Gras at once). "We are a unique posn Atralia to be able to host events of this sle durg a global health panmic, and I mend the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras team for planng such a well-anised, Covid-safe event.

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. 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. 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.

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. The morn rnatn of gay rnival began 1958 when Doug Jon and a group of his iends formed the Krewe of Yuga (KY) as a spoof of the mastream krew the LGBTQ muny was not allowed to jo.

One of the olst gay bars the untry and once equented by Tennsee Williams and Tman Capote, this unassumg spot remas a welg neighborhood hangout home to iendly bartenrs, a wonrfully mixed clientele, some of the bt drk pric the cy and great dance mic. Photo urty of John MOne of the most popular gay clubs New Orleans has to offer, Oz is a French Quarter enzy of bar-top go-go boys, high-energy mic and a laser show that adds to the electrifyg atmosphere. Inpennt senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe’s temporary blockg of the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras Para on Saturday night has aga brought to the surface discsn on the role of prott and police discretn.

The Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras para sce that time has raised awarens about the stigma facg people wh HIV/AIDS, the fight for marriage equaly, and the wir issu facg LGBTIQ+ peopl. Now a weeks-long event, the pièce résistance remas the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras Para, which has taken over Oxford Street (or 2021 and 2022, the Sydney Cricket Ground) annually sce 1978. The para is host to hundreds of floats and thoands of rabow, glter and leather-clad marchers, showsg the vibrant diversy of the LGBTQIA+ muny of people who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, tersex, and asexual.

Its grassroots origs as a prott for gay rights borne of a sire to simply celebrate queerns rema at the heart of the event, regardls of how extravagant grows — and we turned to one of Atralia’s leadg experts on our untry’s queer history for the full story behd the glter.

While go by the name of ‘Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras’, ’s important to note that the event reprents all of the queer muny, not jt those who intify as gay or lbian.

“There’s been a range of studi that show alli have a really important role to play speakg out agast homophobia and transphobia … they also have a role to play helpg to make our society be one where everyone n be celebrated for who they are. “It was part of a day of events that had been anised to draw attentn to the discrimatn that LGBTQ+ people were experiencg … It was arranged around the anniversary of the Stonewall rts, which were an event New York Cy 1969, when the police raid a gay bar lled the Stonewall Inn and patrons fought back, and sparked a lot of attentn that really drew attentn to that movement. Organised primarily by the Gay Solidary Group, the day’s events were set to clu a tradnal prott march and a meetg, but the eveng street para was more of a last mute addn.

On Oxford Street, a number of unrground gay bars had begun to pop up, but as Dr Robson explas, “At that time, was illegal to engage same sex, male homosexual activy New South Wal” — so unrstandably, the queer muny was still largely a hidn one. Organisers have persisted year after year to ph for visibily wh support spreadg wi and far to turn the event to one of NSW’s biggt tourist draw rds, a sparklg event that still celebrat gayns the way Ron At origally tend. Bee the Clover Grill was loted the “gay” sectn of Bourbon Street, directly across om Café Lafte Exile (the cy’s olst gay bar), the ntt drew a mostly gay crowd and featured mostly gay nttants, many of whom wore stum om the table balls they had attend jt weeks earlier.

The show soon took on a life of s own and is now s 60th the 1960s, when closet doors were firmly shut and New Orleans was much more homophobic than is now, Mardi Gras was the only day of the year people uld legally cross-drs.