Fridae

With 135 floats, 8,500 paraders, and over 300,000 spectators, the over three hours of spectacle and spandex that is the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is still definitely ‘saying something’.

Hotel building on the parade route along along Oxford Street.

The  Amnesty International contingent

In response to this year’s theme, 15 floats from groups including Amnesty International, Labour Faces for Marriage Equality and Australian Marriage Equality were lobbying for same-sex marriage.

Leading the parade this year were a group of people who have definitely said something. Some have been saying these things for many, many years and have raised the profile of sexual minorities in times and places where it has been life threatening to do so. Others are new voices that have only recently been heard.

Most well known internationally of these voices are Peter Tatchell, Co-organiser of LGBTI human rights group Outrage and Don Baxter, outgoing executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, who for close to a decade has been at the helm of Australia’s HIV/AIDS peak body.

The Heroes float, which celebrates eight individuals who had the
courage to "say something" and make a difference in gay people's
lives were celebrated as heroes, led the parade.

Unlike previous years, there was no one chief of parade but “eight people who have had the courage to ‘Say Something’ and make a difference to our lives”. The eight are openly-gay American actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin, British LGBT human rights activist Peter Tatchell and Australians Don Baxter, who has worked for decades in the HIV/AIDS sector; Bobby Goldsmith Foundation CEO, former Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras president and Sydney 2002 Gay Games co-chair Bev Lange; Lex Watson and Sue Willis, who were the first co-presidents of Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP); and Hannah Williams and Savannah Supski, who protested against the Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar school ban on same-sex couples attending the end of year formal last year.

Openly-gay American actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin

The sheer number of young people taking part in the parade was a fantastic sight, but it is important to ensure inclusion for people of all ages, especially those who were defending gay rights before most of the paraders and spectators were even born. The message on the Mature Aged Gays float was: “You’re here because we said something”. 

While the parade was a celebration of those who had said something and afforded us with freedoms denied previous LGBTI generations, not to be forgotten were the number of countries where homosexuality is still illegal or where equal rights are not our rights. The plight of sexual minorities in these countries, highlighted the necessity to ‘keep saying something’ on behalf of those who are unable to do so. 

Giant paper mache puppets of PM Julia Gillard (Labor Party) dressed
in a wedding dress and Opposition leader Tony Abbott (Liberal Party)
wearing a pair of speedos at the front of Australian Marriage
Equality Now float, speaking to each other with speech bubbles.

Political satire is never too far away from the parade, with characterisations of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbot, who are so obviously not saying anything on our behalf. Both leaders' parties oppose calls for gay marriage although a 2010 poll of 1,050 Australians showed 62 percent support same-sex marriage.

The gay marriage push may be getting louder, but is it still falling on deaf ears in Canberra? The answer is definitely, yes. All the more reason to answer the call and keep saying something until politicians do something about it.

Ron Wilson has released a statement saying: “As a journalist my job is to present an issue from different perspectives. If anyone took offence at anything I said during the interview I apologise. I fully support the gay community in its campaign to promote the issue of gay marriage and I congratulate the gay and lesbian community on the success of Mardi Gras.