Mardi Gras parade puts politics up front
Comment by Tom Flanagan
SYDNEY — The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been criticised in recent years for becoming too commercialised, at the expense of the progressive politics that marked its origins.
It has unquestionably become a huge money spinner for the travel industry, gay and lesbian venues, and dance party promoters. And it has come a long way from the march of 1000 people in 1978 that was subjected attacked by police, who made 60 arrests.
But a shift from politics to commercialism is not the complete story. Even though lesbian and gay activism is at a fairly low ebb, the 2000 Mardi Gras parade was a very political event.
An estimated 500,000 people attended the parade on March 4, making it the largest and most important event of the Mardi Gras festival. As in 1999, political floats were positioned towards the front of the parade following the traditional lead contingent, the awe-inspiring Dykes on Bikes. The several Aboriginal and anti-racist floats, including a very large and colourful Black, White and Pink contingent, were a high point of the evening.
Banners and placards highlighted many of the ways lesbians and gay men are still discriminated against in Australia. For example, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby contingent called for equal age of consent laws and for equal superannuation rights for gay and lesbian couples.
While the Greens had a lively contingent, the Labor Party was conspicuously absent. Even one branch of the Liberal Party organised a contingent, although it mustered only a handful of people and was outdone by dozens of giant marching tampons protesting against the Coalition government's decision to impose the GST on them.
An entire section of the parade was devoted to HIV/AIDS issues, with a large contingent from the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation which raises funds to assist people living with HIV/AIDS.
Hundreds marched behind the banner of PFLAG, the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, including contingents from regional centres and country towns. These groups received a strong and positive response from the crowd.
While there are many forms of oppression, a special feature of the oppression of lesbians and gay men is that you can try to avoid it by concealing your sexuality; a homophobic society pressures non-heterosexual people to take part in their own oppression.
This is most clearly articulated by many religious leaders, who say they support their gay and lesbian constituents, but oppose their sexual practices. They are essentially asking gay and lesbian Christians to repress themselves.
It is the attitude "It's OK as long as they don't flaunt it", espoused by many church leaders and reflected by many other people, that Mardi Gras confronts head on. In the context of a society that still oppresses homosexuality, Mardi Gras is the ultimate, in-your-face "flaunt". It inevitably has a political impact.
But the non-political aspect of Mardi Gras also has its downside. In particular, the commercialisation of Mardi Gras brings problems beyond simply a dilution of the progressive politics that gave rise to the event.
Let's face it, there are countless businesses, large and small, trying to find an angle to tap into the Mardi Gras dollar. Some of these sales pitches are harmless fun, but others, like much of capitalist advertising in general, use sexist and racist stereotyping to make an impact.
This stereotyping arises from the society that surrounds Mardi Gras, just as sexist and racist individuals do. Mardi Gras may be an occasion for these ideas to be expressed, but it is not the source of them. With this in mind, the small "Mardi Gras is sexist" contingent that marched this year would have done better to aim at a more specific target.
So, for the left, let's use the opportunity that the Mardi Gras parade provides to express a positive vision of humanity — striving to throw off all forms of oppression and having a good time while we're doing it.