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Activist collective is hosting their annual 2025 Mardi Gras Street Rally on Sunday afternoon, demanding no right to discriminate, no pride in detention, the disarming of police, and police out of pride.

For the past four months, the group have been campaigning for the release of a group of transgender women incarcerated at Villawood Detention Centre, who have been suffering from isolation, and racist, transphobic treatment at the hands of guards and other detainees.

Until September last year, the women had been housed in the male compound.

“Pride in Protest believe that Mardi Gras’ roots are in protest,” said Damien Nguyen, a Mardi Gras Board Director elected by Pride in Protest. “It’s meant to be a protest that shows what the community demands, especially with the federal election coming up this year.

“It is crucial that our community be heard as we lead up to a decision that will be made about our lives. As we have seen, on both state and federal levels, our rights have been attacked in multiple different ways, most recently being the puberty blocker debates in Queensland.

“With such a major election coming up, we must have our voices heard, and our demands.”

“Our vision of what Mardi Gras should look like”

Beginning at Pride Square in Newtown, protestors will march through King Street, past Sydney University, and finish at Victoria Park, where Fair Day is being held.

Speakers include Community Action for Rainbow Rights spokesperson, April Holcombe, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, and representatives from both the Sex Workers Outreach Program and the Asian Migrant Sex Workers’ Advisory Group.

“At the end of the day, this rally isn’t in opposition of Fair Day, it is about showing our vision of what Mardi Gras should look like on the first day of the season,” said Nguyen.

“It’s about showing where our priorities are. Fair Day is corporate sponsorship, pinkwashing… our rally will be there because we believe it should be part of the proceedings.”

Pride in Protest was one of three groups to bring forward motions at the 2024 Mardi Gras AGM to ban police, in some capacity, from Mardi Gras.

鈥淭his is a big step forward, but it鈥檚 not quite a win,” said Nguyen at the time. “We鈥檙e disappointed that there has been a loss, but we know now that it鈥檚 a question of when, not if, the police will be removed from the parade.”

The Pride in Protest Mardi Gras Street Rally is on at 2pm, Sunday 16 February at Pride Square in Newtown.

 

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