A well-attended Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras annual general meeting voted overwhelmingly against the exclusion of activist organisations. Rachel Evans reports.
This AGM is a key expression of this. As a member of Pride in Protest, I am moving motions about fighting the religious freedoms bill, endorsing an upcoming rally, and supporting transition leave. Meanwhile, other members are moving motions to expel activists and essentially take me to court for the protest last year.
Pride in Protest and the fight for Sydney’s queer community
Leadership struggles, online vitriol and generational change within Sydney s queer community. Photography by Aman Kapoor
April 11, 2021
Veiled in respectful silence, Taylor Square is surprisingly still, calm even. The sheer number of people that have turned up smother the occasional spot fires of nervousness that jump through the crowd. Bodies radiate quiet determination.
“I’m going to get a little bit emotional because, as I stand here on this occasion, I am recalling that first Mardi Gras”, says Mark Gillespie, microphone in hand, his voice filling Taylor Square.
Gillespie is a “78er”, one of the original protestors who marched down Oxford Street from Taylor Square on 24 June, 1978, to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. When police denied the marchers access to Hyde Park that night, where they planned to have speeches, cries of “on to the Cross” multiplied rapidly. Protestors