It all began with a few hundred people marching down Oxford Street in 1978. Little did those original marchers know that from a small street protest would grow one of the world’s largest gay and lesbian festivals. Thirty years later, as 10,000 participants, 150 floats and more than 300,000 spectators descended on Oxford Street, Mardi Gras paraded into A Brave New World.
Instead of the flagship float, this year’s lead was 180 of the original marchers from 1978. Dianne Minis, one of the 78ers who marched then and now, took OUTinPerth for a stroll down the protest route of thirty years ago.
‘It was a very celebratory and fun atmosphere – we had one truck, some music, a couple of banners on it, some people dressed up. My housemate went along and we were just sashaying down Oxford Street,’ she recalled. ‘Then when the police stopped the event and took the keys of the truck, it just changed in an instant. It was absolutely electric and electrifying… It got very scary once we got to the Cross, King’s Cross, and they barricaded both ends of the main route. I think I was traumatized for years after by what I saw.’
In 1978 many of the Mardi Gras marchers were detained by police at Darlinghurst Police Station. Ironically, thirty years later, the police are now marching with them.
According to Ken Davis, another of the 78ers, ‘the transformation of the police from an enemy to possibly an ally is a big victory… but I don’t regard it as fully healed because we are still not getting enough response from the police about violence. I don’t think it’s simply a matter of education, I think there’s structures in society that generate racism and sexism and anti-gay prejudice. The glamour and the humour and the visibility of transgender, lesbian and gay men in Mardi Gras is still a really important antidote for repressive tendencies that exist in society. Mardi Gras is one night a year when we say we want a new world, a new world based on freedom and equality.’
As recently as last December, brutal hate crimes were reported on Oxford Street. One of the most severe was the bashing of Craig Gee and Shane Brennen. Craig had his skull crushed by an attacker who then phoned Craig’s mother to say he had killed her ‘faggot son.’ Craig and Shane made their return to Oxford Street for the 30th Mardi Gras, and as they passed, thousands of spectators joined hands in a show of solidarity and support.
And so, with hands joined and hearts moved, Mardi Gras Parade 2008 was under way. There were floats we laughed at, such as ‘Gimme Gimme Britney’, a journey through the many phases of Britney Spears, there were moments of sheer jubilation as the Surf Lifesavers bounced their way down the parade route and there were the moments, like the 100 Revs apology and the PFLAG families, that moved us. There were athletes and artists, drag queens and dykes. And above all, there was what felt like the whole world watching as our community and all it has to offer put on a 3-hour show embracing the theme A Brave New World.
