On February 5, more than 22,000 gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House for the launch of the 1999 Mardi Gras season. Over the next two weeks Sydney will host a plethora of gay and lesbian events — plays, exhibitions, film nights, sports, forums, fair days — in Australia's biggest public statement of sexual tolerance, Mardi Gras. Resistance examines the role Mardi Gras plays in the fight for lesbian and gay equality.
From lock-up to frock-up
The first Mardi Gras was organised in 1978 in solidarity with gays and lesbians in San Francisco who were fighting against a homophobic bill proposed by Republican senator John Briggs. Activists in a range of organisations, including the Active Defence of Homosexuals on Campus, the Gay Task Force and Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), formed a committee to organise a rally. After much discussion, a daytime rally was called on June 24, to be followed by a night-time carnival.
Ken Davis recalls the first rally: "City shoppers and workers saw an unprecedentedly large lesbian-led street march. The march passed without incident, everyone exhilarated by the turnout and the vehemence of our demands against discrimination, the law and violence. For many, it was their first demonstration, their first coming out."
The night-time carnival, however, did not go as smoothly. Police attacked the demonstration at Hyde Park. The crowd grew angry and attempted to march into Kings Cross but was stopped by police. Fifty-three people were arrested.
The next day, the CAMP offices became an organising point for the campaign. Hundreds turned up to a meeting to discuss what to do next.
A protest rally was called for July 15, when more than 2000 people came onto the streets to demand that the NSW Labor government drop the charges. It was the largest lesbian and gay rally held in Australia to that time.
After marching through Kings Cross, the demonstrators stopped in front of Darlinghurst Police Station and laid wreaths of pansies. Unimpressed, the police arrested 11 more people.
The police response to the first Mardi Gras provoked national outrage. Solidarity rallies were organised in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. A commemorative rally held the following year attracted 3000 demonstrators. Mardi Gras then became an annual celebration of gay and lesbian pride.
During the 1980s, there were sharp debates over what direction Mardi Gras should take. Those who wanted to make Mardi Gras more of a party and less of a demonstration gained the upper hand. In 1982 Mardi Gras was moved to the summer months and Brian McGahen, on behalf of the organising committee, declared "we are keen on having maximum commercial participation".
Today, more than 200,000 people participate in the Mardi Gras parade. In 1991, Ian Marsh from the Australian Graduate School of Management and consulting economist John Greenfield calculated that Mardi Gras generated $38 million for the sate of NSW; akin to a pink Christmas.
Qantas earns $1.5 million from international visitors, and Mardi Gras attracts more international and interstate visitors than any other cultural festival in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or Adelaide. The festival guide carries advertising from Hahn Ice, Qantas, Telstra, Foxtel, Land Rover and other large corporations.
Symbolising the gap between Mardi Gras' radical traditions and the respectable event it has become, at last year's parade the NSW police force was cheered when officers marched under the banner "we are here because we care".
Is visibility enough?
To justify the shift in emphasis in Mardi Gras, the 1983 organising committee explained, "We do not see politics in any narrow sense. Our right to lead our chosen lifestyle is a major political demand." Raising lesbian and gay visibility has become the focus of Mardi Gras, rather than using the march to campaign for equal rights.
In a homophobic society, visibility is important. Mardi Gras is a powerful "in your face" reminder that there are hundreds of thousands of people who refuse to be silenced by homophobic attitudes. As the 1999 program states, "We won't stand for any infringement of our basic right to be who we want to be and love who we want to love".
But visibility is not enough. Although it may be "OK to be gay" for the one night of Mardi Gras, when the party is over discrimination against gays and lesbians remains. As the 1999 festival guide points out, gay sex is still illegal in 40% of countries around the world. Gay and lesbian literature is banned in China, Singapore and Taiwan. In Tonga, the "abominable crime of sodomy" is punishable by life imprisonment.
In Australia, there are a myriad of laws which discriminate against gays and lesbians — the unequal age of consent laws, for example (see box).
A focus of this year's Mardi Gras will be equal rights for same-sex couples. Before the 1995 NSW election, the Labor government promised to introduce in its first term legislation to recognise same-sex relationships. It failed to do so. Last June 24, Democrat MP Elizabeth Kirkby introduced a private member's bill — the De Facto Relationships Amendment Bill — into the upper house. The bill was deferred to the Social Issues Committee, which is due to report in May.
Same-sex couples are discriminated against in NSW in areas such as inheritance, accident compensation, stamp duty, superannuation, decision making in the case of incapacity or death, and hospital visitation.
NSW Premier Bob Carr was quoted in the festival guide as saying, "Mardi Gras sends a message of defiance to the puritans, the wowsers and the nay-sayers". Perhaps these are the same puritans he accommodated by failing to deliver on same-sex law reform.
Laws formalising discrimination against gays and lesbians also legitimise homophobia. Aside from the suffering they cause those affected by them, such laws also entrench and reinforce the prejudices of the nay-sayers and wowsers. Even laws that are rarely enforced, such as the age of consent laws, help to create a climate which stigmatises gay and lesbian sexuality.
To eliminate homophobia, it is necessary to remove the legal basis for discrimination against gays and lesbians. The radical movement which sparked the first Mardi Gras campaigned for and won real advances. The gay and lesbian liberation movement, which developed out of the general social radicalisation of the 1960s, forced changes in the law (most states, bar Tasmania, repealed their anti-sodomy laws in the early 1980s, for example) and, in the process, pushed back homophobic attitudes.
Today, Mardi Gras is part of establishment culture. It is an "outrageous" night which shocks the shockable (Fred Nile maintains his vigil against the sin of it all), but simultaneously makes private businesses millions of dollars and provides a platform for hypocrites such as Kim Beazley, Bob Carr and Peter Collins. It is one big queer night during which everyone is expected to wear as much (or little) leather, sequins and latex as possible, so long as they come down after the party and go home.
To achieve real equality for lesbians and gays, much more is required. The radical movement which sparked the first Mardi Gras provides the clues as to what is required.