This weekend, Mardi Gras season comes to an end with the parade. 10,000 people will march up Oxford Street in front of a crowd of thousands more.
The Mardi Gras Parade has been my favourite event of the year (probably not an exaggeration) since I first marched in 2012. Being in the parade is euphoric. The first time I marched, we were walking up Market Street to Hyde Park, and the crowds of people on the street literally parted for us as they took photos, cheered and applauded. The last time I was in the city before that, some guys had yelled at me and my partner, “Fucking dykes, you just need a dick!”
Every year around the parade there is a spike in homophobia – the queer bashings last week, and the government’s inquiry into Safe Schools make this year no different – but I’ve always been lucky. The parade has felt like the one time of the year I can be the most exaggerated form of myself: covered in glitter, sequins, and wearing the shortest shorts I can find, while people cheer and applaud me for being myself.
However, watching the parade really isn’t that fun. Among hordes of crowds, if you’re short (like me) there’s little to no viewing room, and it’s looooong. And it seems that every year it gets longer.
The corporatisation of Mardi Gras means that each year, the parade gets bigger – to accommodate community groups, as well as corporates that want to use the parade as a chance to show they’re not homophobes.
This year, for the first time, the NRL has a float. While this is a pretty big step, the float’s organiser, Paul Langmack, told the Sydney Morning Herald he foresees a time when every NRL team has its own float.
Why?!
This year’s float will apparently barely have any current NRL players, because the parade coincides with the code’s first round of the 2016 season. The float is an important step in showing queer solidarity, and perhaps eradicating homophobia, but with barely any actual players – and little other visible commitment to ending homophobia (unlike what’s being done in the AFL, for example) – why should we be looking to applaud every individual team? It’s a stretch to applaud just this float – especially in light of Mitchell Pearce’s recent antics (why does no-one ever talk about how many gay jokes him and his mates throw around in that video?).
Homophobia in these kinds of sports is rife. Ending that is a huge step forward. But committing to not be homophobic should not be enough to earn you a spot in the parade.
Not being homophobic is a fairly simple commitment to ‘not being a dickhead’. It definitely doesn’t make you an ally. The NRL needs to do much more, especially if it wants all of its teams to have a presence on Mardi Gras night.
Companies, too, need to show an active commitment to diversity if they want to be included in the parade. The Liberal Party has a float, despite organising inquiries into Safe Schools, and actively preventing marriage equality from passing. Having a few LGBT members doesn’t prove you’re an ally organisation.
Corporates like ANZ, which are major sponsors of Mardi Gras, do showy things like GAYNZ on Oxford Street, and a flashy float. But ANZ also has a diversity unit and is committed to employing LGBTI people. The University of Sydney has an ally network, which is still developing, but it is already making important steps on campus for things like gender neutral toilets, and allowing trans and gender diverse students to use preferred names and pronouns in their documentation.
Organisations like this can definitely do more. But they’re already doing far more than simply not being dickheads.
Ending homophobia is something everyone should be committed to. Participants in the Mardi Gras Parade should have to prove their commitment to diversity and allyship in order to get a float. We can expect better for the best day of the year.
This Week:
On Friday March 4, ACON is teaming up with Shades at the Burdekin Hotel, with Sveta and Homosocial DJs. Nearby, in the Oxford Hotel basement, NatNoiz is doing a Mardi Gras warm-up party, with Sideboob, Cunningpants and Kate Monroe. Across town at the Red Rattler, San Francisco favourites are bringing back Swagger Like Us, a queer hip hop party featuring Big Dipper, Davo and local Hip Hop Hoe.
Afterparties on Parade night, Saturday March 5,are plentiful. There’s the official party at the Hordern Pavilion, Bar Fruity and Club Fruity at The Shift, Girlthing at the Metro Theatre, Heaps Gay at The Imperial, Monsta Gras at the Red Rattler, Klub Kooriat Hermann’s Bar, Halfway Crooks x Flex at Plan B Small Club, and so much more. Check events aren’t sold out in advance.
Recovery parties are also in hot demand. The official Laneway party at the Beresford Hotel is sold out, as is Club Kooky. The Imperial Hotel will have its Shady Sunday, and most pubs up and down King Street and Oxford Street will have specials on Bloody Marys. Take Monday off, if you can. You deserve it. It’s Christmas, after all!
[Mardi Gras parade photo by Ashley Mar]
