Australian Prime Minister marches in the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras

February 25, 2023 10:57 PM

Australia's current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, just became the first Australian Prime Minister to march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. He marched with Rainbow Labor NSW, which is an advocacy group within the Labor party for LGBT equality. Albanese has been marching [as an ally] at Mardi Gras since 1983 (yesterday was the 35th time that he's marched with Mardi Gras), but it is the first time that he has ever done so as Prime Minister.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (6 comments total)

Meanwhile, federal Senator and serial shitstirrer Lidia Thorpe temporarily held up the parade by lying down in front of the police float.

Whether you agree with her stated reasons or not, that takes guts.
posted by flabdablet at 11:43 PM on February 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

Retracing the steps of the first Mardi Gras in Sydney - I thought this article was quite well done and worth reading: very powerful interviews interleaved with text.
posted by freethefeet at 3:18 AM on February 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm glad Albo was there as PM, and I'm also glad this isn't the first time he's marched as an ally. It would mean less if it was his first time, like tokenism. This way has more weight.

A few Indigenous folks on TikTok were saying that the cops in the parade (not on duty) were flying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. If that's true it's a pretty obnoxious provocation on their part.
posted by harriet vane at 4:22 AM on February 26, 2023 [6 favorites]

As Patricia Karvalas noted, while Australia has come come a long way, there's still a distance to go. That said, the lack of public moral panic about the PM's marching is a great sign that many have moved on and some others have realised they need to pull their head in.
posted by jjderooy at 2:05 PM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm also glad he was there, primarily because he's been there every year for so long. I'm also pleased about the lack of response to him being there, because nobody should care what the PM does on his day off.
posted by dg at 3:53 PM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

That said, the lack of public moral panic about the PM's marching is a great sign that many have moved on and some others have realised they need to pull their head in.

It certainly seems like the attempts to erode LGBTQ+ progress we're seeing elsewhere aren't finding purchase in Australia. There were a few nascent attempts to try and make transgender people a big deal, but the average voter just found it a weird culture war fixation and not something anyone serious should be worrying about (and the few adjustments that needed to be made over womens' spaces, like the McIver Baths in Coogee, were handled with grace and mutual listening.) Ian Thorpe, ol' Thorpey, showing up for transgender swimmers was a big deal, because I think he still holds a lot of credibility as a sportsman (it's Thorpey!), and that's exactly the kind of solidarity transgender people need from gay men and don't always get.

I do think it's becoming a non-issue here, and that most people have moved on. The culture wars haven't really delivered material change, and I think there's a sense that it was all a big distraction so that the former government could do what it liked and not solve any problems.

Meanwhile, federal Senator and serial shitstirrer Lidia Thorpe temporarily held up the parade by lying down in front of the police float.

I suspect that Senator Thorpe is discounting the power of solidarity, as she goes down the list of lefty groups to systematically alienate
posted by Merus at 9:29 PM on February 26, 2023 [3 favorites]