Mardi Gras’ “shameful” moment
YOU聽couldn’t have scripted what happened at the Mardi Gras Parade聽last聽weekend. The irony of it all is just too real.
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the Labor Party, and the NSW聽police are all under fire . NPID聽was originally scheduled to follow the Rainbow Labor float, but after members of NPID聽protested a press conference held by Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek they were soon threatened by Mardi Gras organisers to be removed from the parade all together.
Mardi Gras has since stated聽it was responding to concerns raised by the police, with riot police . A聽compromise was made that saw NPID聽shifted away from the Rainbow Labor float.
A rather tense moment (pictured above) saw parade producer Anthony Russell confronting NPID organiser Ed McMahon in a video that has now gone viral:
“If I bring Bill Shorten out here now and one of you people say something to him, you are not in the fucking parade. Do you understand that?
鈥淪o have a chat to your people, you talk to your people right now, OK. You鈥檝e got one more chance. If you don鈥檛, if you can鈥檛 act like a normal human being 鈥� all in the parade together 鈥� then you鈥檙e out.鈥�
The irony is stunning.
These actions occurred only just days聽after celebrations as NSW Parliament, the Sydney Morning Herald, and聽the NSW Police聽formally apologised to those known as the 78ers 鈥� the original participants of the very first Mardi Gras who endured police brutality, mistreatment and arrested.听听
鈥淭he protracted court cases for the arrestees and ongoing protests served to engage a huge number of additional people in the cause of gay rights 鈥� galvanising the movement for gay law reform and the right for the community to protest in the street.鈥�
While you may not think it is the same, the links between these two groups are extremely strong. Just as the 78ers were fighting against the oppression of the state and the police, so were NPID. , people who have been locked away indefinitely solely for seeking protection from oppressive regimes.
The ALP is just as culpable in this imprisonment as the Coalition Government. It was the Labor Party who introduced PNG Solution while they were in power, sending聽LGBTI聽asylum seekers to a country that imprisons people for being gay. Since entering opposition the party has been virtually silent as the government has increased punishment towards asylum seekers.
And yet, just a week after the first apology to the 78ers, Mardi Gras appeared to be聽working with the police to actively shut down those who were exercising their right to protest in the street.
Let鈥檚 be clear: there is no evidence that聽NPID聽were a physical threat to Rainbow Labor. Their crime seems to be chanting. Their crime was exercising their right to protest in the street. The very right to protest that Mardi Gras claims to celebrate.
However,聽it seems that celebration means nothing. I鈥檓 not surprised by the police behaviour in this matter. Despite claims to the contrary . It was only a few years ago that was released to the public and each year , controlling what revellers can and can鈥檛 wear at the festivities.
What is disappointing is the role Mardi Gras officials have played this year. Instead of siding with the protestors, Mardi Gras has now silenced people who were standing up for the rights of marginalised LGBTI people. They used the very structures that have committed untold violence against us for decades in order to silence those who made their party a little uncomfortable.
And why? So they could appease the leader of a party who supports the imprisonment of innocent queers on prison islands.
In this, of all years, I would have thought Mardi Gras would have been able to look and reflect on its history. They may have been able to actively celebrate the right for LGBTI people聽to protest. They may have encouraged it. But apparently not. And what a shameful display it was.
No surprise to me. The majority of gay guys I know don’t care about anything political and are annoyed by difference in their fellow queers. Their is no quality that comes along with beung gay that means one is a decent human. Gays are as exclusionary as any other group.
The Mardi Gras board themselves were chanting “Let them stay” at Fair Day. Anthony should have had a stern talking to them about not being involved in F*#cking Fairday!
Australia has turned into North Korea with suppression of free speech, the way we treat fellow human beings known as refugees in Manus Island and Nauru the equivalent to Nazi war camps, banning democracy on recent senate reforms that lockout minor parties, mandatory detention, guilty until proven innocent reforms, locking people up without a charge or even a trial for years, banning protests, metadata, CCTV on every corner, lockout laws, politicians telling us people who to marry! What happened to my country? George Orwell was 100% right in the book 1984!
AGREED!
Murdoch…. obeyed by his Liberal’s
Notwithstanding the general indifference or antipathy to asylum seekers (and by conflation, Muslims,) by a majority of self-interested and privileged gays, its good to see that at least another gay man agrees that there is No Pride In Detention, and that the parade is the place to protest those responsible for the ongoing abuses of gay men on Nauru and Manus.
Mardi Gras – your finished. Just wait on the financial results,
Malcolm Turnbull is a cunt! He is gutless cunt, because he has refused to call an early federal election! He runs a dysfunctional government with a dysfunctional budget that has a whooping $200 billion deficit!
What has happened to Australia? Just in the past 4 days we have had heat waves, a siege in Ingleburn, a man chain sawing a power pole and putting petrol on a cops face in Riverstone, dysfunctional Turnbull government can not organise a budget, Tony Abbott cheating on his wife, flooding of burst water mains in Campbelltown and Adelaide, what the fuck is going on? What’s next New Zealand declares war on Australia?
If New Zealand did declare war on Australia, I would personally welcome it, because that would mean Australia would have marriage equality! But that will not happen to be realistic, because they only have 4 million people, while we have 20 million more people!
This country is a complete embarrassment! It should not matter what your sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or political belief is – at the end of the day the Mardi Gras is for all of us LGBTIQ people to have a bit of fun, and all it takes is just one complete dickface to ruin it! This is the reason why marriage equality is not allowed in Australia! Bill Shorten for Prime Minister I say for standing up to a homophobe Cory Benardi a few weeks back! If you vote Liberal, another 3 years of dysfunctional government, bad budgets, banning conscience or free votes on issues and will continue to cut funding to the safe schools and ban marriage equality! Half of my friends are actual members of the Liberal party and we still get along as best mates. I personally like the Liberal party in terms of being anti-unions and introducing Omnibus Repeal Bills! I do not like Labor sometimes because of unions, bitter infightings of leaderships and branch-stacking members, corruption, etc! The 2 party political system has done so much damage to Australia and our trading partners!
What about the Greens? You can vote for them!
No, Mr Copland.
It is not acceptable for parade participants to be jeered and booed by other parade participants for two kilometres.Doesn’t matter if it is Rainbow Labor, Liberal, Greens or Clover Moore.
And hiding behind statements like “no evidence that NPID were a physical threat to Rainbow Labor” is just plain mealy mouthed.
Thank you Mardi Gras for insisting on a safe environment for all LGBTI, regardless of political colours.
So if the crowd en mass chooses to boo a homosexual group they are excluded from community events? Seems the kind of example that proves there is no gay community and never has been. Do what the crowd does or back down? With that attitude I’m surprised the Mardi Gras started. Afraid of boos? Pathetic
Might be worth reading this:
I’m a parade participant and strongly believe the parade is a platform for protest. I agree that there is No
Pride in Detention. But there is no place for one parade entrant to harass or abuse another parade entrant. We each have been given an opportunity to express our views, and we each are entitled to our space to do so. There are expectations of behaviour that are reasonable and should be followed. Just like in your website Simon where you lay down the rules of behaviour for those leaving comment ‘Don鈥檛 be rude and don鈥檛 be a bigot. I will delete anything that is patronising, attacks other commenters or is queerphobic, sexist or racist. No exeptions.’ Simon you have an expectation of behaviour for comments on your site, just as Mardi Gras have an expectation of participants behaviour.
And let’s face it, the outcome was: no one was arrested, no one was ejected from the parade , the float was simply moved back three places to separate the two groups. The NPID float was featured briefly in the broadcast ( and most floats don’t get a mention)and their message sent to viewers around the world. I think MG acted appropriately
It’s time we stopped pretending that the relationship between the police and our community is all good, it’s not. Police still continue to harass our community, target our parties and bars, they’re not welcome or needed.
Standing behind a politician using a public street to do a press conference, separate to the actual parade, and chanting “we’re here, we’re queer, refugees are welcome here”, is not “harrassment”. Telling young people they can be booted out of a political parade because the police bother squad are worried about them is collusion with organised oppression.
Agree. Id guess that for most of the organiser’s it’s just a “fun night out”. I cant imagine any organisation that operates at a loss has the capacity to be aware of anything other then doing what the big boys say so they can have their fun party.