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Everything coming up Aces
By Amber Schultz
The Australian Asexuals are dressed in matching purple Hawaiian shirts as part of their beach party theme.
While it’s the sixth year the community have marched in the parade, asexuals were only included in the event’s official community acronym (L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+) last year.
Group organiser Elyse McKenzie said being represented in the march was a “validating” experience.
“The parade is about showing a large variety of people, and showcasing people living a non-hetero life,” she said.
“Mardi Gras brings out a lot of younger people and it’s exciting to see people who are 19 or 20 releasing their sexuality – asexuality is something now known to them.”
The number of community members participating in the march has increased from 18 to 30 since last year.
Hot competition for best dance
By Amber Schultz
Sydney Dance Company are absolutely vying for best choreography this year (as they have been every year). With tinsel foil on their forearms and silver outfits, they’re absolutely slaying.
But the Queer South Asians are bringing hot competition — and even more sequins —following right behind, mixing traditional dance moves with contemporary ones
Sydney Dance Company float dancers earlier in the day: Natalie Zagaglia, Sarah Peressini, Emma Langfield and Vivienne CrowleCredit:Mary Ward
The group giving queer South Asian people a home
By Mary Ward
Coming through now is Trikone Australia, a social organisation for queer South Asian people in Sydney.
Inspired by a US organisation of the same name, Trikone’s Sydney chapter was founded in 2007. For 15 years, the group has held dance parties, Diwali dinners, hikes and movie screenings, and more recently, marched in Mardi Gras and staged its own Bollywood performances.
Sunderella is a queer reimagining of the fairytale Cinderella, playing as part of the WorldPride festival.Credit:Wolter Peeters
“We give queer South Asians a home because sometimes at home it’s not really safe for us,” he said. “That’s why we do these events.”
Our reporter Mary Ward interviewed the group’s director Bali Padda earlier this month. You can read the full story here.
‘A community with No Us and Them’: Wayside Chapel’s message for the world
By Mary Ward
Joining the parade from just down the road is Wayside Chapel.
When the pandemic hit, the Kings Cross service was forced to shut its doors. Instead, Wayside, which provides meals, services and connection for those doing it tough, transitioned to outreach work, finding members of its community and helping them to survive as the world around them changed unprecedentedly.
“For us to even be thinking about celebrating pride, it wasn’t on the table,” said Tom Stevenson, a member of the service’s queer working group.
Dykes on Bikes kick off the 45th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney.Credit:Nikki Short
But after a few years away from the parade, Wayside is back in 2023 with a float titled: “Absolutely Everybody! - A community with No Us and Them.”
Between 20 and 25 per cent of visitors to Wayside identify as queer, Stevenson said. Forty visitors, volunteer and staff are marching tonight, following a month of dance rehearsals.
Participants preparing for the parade earlier in the day.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
“We have an important message, not just for Sydney but Australia and the world, that by having an inclusive community we can have a life without loneliness. And loneliness disproportionately impacts people in the LGBT community,” he said.
Local politicians front the parade
By Amber Schultz
The city of Sydney has splashed out on an ice-cream van, complete with dancers holding giant styrofoam ice cream cones. Dancing to ‘sweet dreams are made of this,’ they’re dressed in blue and pink wigs, pink skirts and aprons.
They’re followed by a group for Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich who arrived in a car with Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Moore and Greenwich have been marching together since 2013.
“We’ve had a wonderful reception, lots of people here,” Moore told the ABC’s Jeremy Fernandez. “[It’s a] wonderful weather, a very happy event.”
Afternoon arrivals hold front-row spots
By Mary Ward
They were predicting a record-breaking crowd at tonight’s Mardi Gras, so how early did you have to get to Oxford Street for a front-row seat?
At Taylor Square, Mimi Hall, 25, and her partner Jess Holder, 27, have been holding their place since 4:30pm. It’s the Canberra couple’s first Mardi Gras.
Mimi Hall and her partner Jess Holder.Credit:Mary Ward
“I think it’s amazing to be celebrating such an amazing community, especially as someone from the intersex community,” Hall said.
“I feel so proud to be here with and celebrating people who fought so hard for LGBTQI+ rights.”
Crowds enjoying the Mardi Gras atmosphere.Credit:Nikki Short
First Nations float snakes its way down Oxford Street
By Angus Thomson
Some incredible aerial and roadside images coming through of the 20-metre Rainbow Serpent snaking its way down Oxford Street.
The First Nations float: a 20-metre Rainbow SerpentCredit:
The serpent has been years in the making, and represents the participants’ connection to Country and dreaming stories of creation.
A traditional smoking ceremony at the start of the parade.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
‘We heard this shouting’: 78ers remember first Mardi Gras protest
By Mary Ward
Leading out the parade is the 78ers, the group who took part in the first Mardi Gras protest down Oxford Street on June 24, 1978.
Lance Day, 83, said he would have been absolutely shocked to learn what the commotion he heard going on outside the Oxford Street bar he and his friends were drinking in one night 45 years ago had become today.
“I was never a demonstrator, to be honest. But that night, I was in Capriccio’s and we heard this shouting, ‘Out of the bars and into the streets, out of the bars and into the streets’,” he recalled.
“So we all came downstairs and joined in. Right up the top near Taylor Square.
“There were probably a couple of hundred at the start. Then by the time we got to the Cross there were 2000.”
Reflecting on how Sydney had transformed from a place where LGBT protesters were assaulted, outed in the press and jailed to a city spending millions to host WorldPride, Day said he had one word: “Proud.”
Dykes on Bikes first off the line
As is tradition, the untameable lesbian motorcycle club Dykes on Bikes are leading the 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.
Dykes on Bikes first off the line.Credit:Nikki Short
Dykes on Bikes first off the line.Credit:Niiki Short
Dykes on Bikes first off the line.Credit:Nikki Short
The parade is running slightly late, but we’ll update you as the floats come through.
He’s been abused, but that won’t stop Mardi Gras presenter Nate Byrne
By Bridget McManus
Anchoring the ABC’s coverage of the historic parade tonight is much-loved meteorologist and weather presenter, Nate Byrne.
Byrne is reluctant to claim the title of Australia’s first openly gay weather presenter, but he just might be. It’s been three years since he rode his first Mardi Gras float down Sydney’s Oxford Street as part of the broadcaster’s inaugural participation in the parade. Following that event, he was the target of online abuse from a viewer who vowed to never again watch his weather forecasts.
“I reckon this is going to be an incredible Mardi Gras”: ABC News Breakfast’s Nate Byrne is co-hosting the broadcast.
“People decide they need to share their hate with me for some reason,” says Byrne. “My team at News Breakfast jumped on it the following day, showing their support.”
Byrne will be anchoring the broadcast tonight from 7.30pm alongside Behind the News’ Jack Evans and ABCQueer’s Mon Schafter. You can read more from his interview with Bridget McManus here.
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2023-02-25 09:39:04Z
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