Sky News contributor Evelyn Rae has called on all police, emergency services organisations and the miliary to be removed from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Appearing on the Sunday Showdown, the pundit, who is a former police officer, criticised recent moves to ban the police from the parade, but said in her view, they should never have been involved in the event.
“I find this quite ridiculous, and I think we’ve missed the whole point – police should never be participating in the Mardi Gras.” Rae said.
“The Mardi Gras, despite what people think, is not a neutral event. It’s not politically neutral, it’s not religiously neutral, it’s not morally neutral. It is by its very definition division of society, separation of things.
“My belief, and that one that I think the majority of Australians would probably have, is that the police, the emergency services, the military, the ambulance, navy – every single one of these things should be objective, should be impartial, and never participate in something that is not a neutral position.
Rae argued that by taking part in Mardi Gras police were “widening the gap” between law enforcement and civilians.
“If police are participating in these sorts of things, they’re just going to fracture that gap, because they’ve basically said I’ve taken a position on here, and now I am separate to this other side of society. It’s so stupid and dumb.” Rae said.
When fellow panelist Joe Hildebrand said he believe police should take part in the parade to show they support people from LGBTIQA+ communities, Rae asked if police would take part in a “straight pride” parade if such a thing existed.
Hildebrand said the police needed to build up trust with the LGBTIQA+ communities because historically there was very little, which led to Rae defending past police actions.
While Hildebrand noted that it had recently been shown that police had failed to investigate gay hate crimes, Rae said dwelling on the past was akin to concerns in society about colonisation.
“This is the same as colonisation crap – I’m sorry.” Rae responded.
While her colleagues stressed the recent findings of the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes, Rae appeared to suggest that people should remember that homosexuality was once illegal.
“It’s because the law back then, it’s only been semi- sort of recent.”
New South Wales decriminalised homosexuality in 1984, but the age of consent was kept at 18 for homosexual sexual acts. It was reduced the same as heterosexual sexual in 2003.
Among the 19 recommendations from the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes was a call for a review of unsolved homocide cases from 1979 until 2010. It found that a wide number of suspicious deaths were not treated as assaults or homicides but were listed as accidental deaths or suicides, with some never being properly investigated at all.
“We’re talking about people being gay, being lured to their deaths and being killed, thrown off cliffs, and the cops being told about this and going ‘oh-no doesn’t matter’, and just not looking into it.” Hildebrand said.
“We’re not taking about them prosecuting people for being gay.” he added.
Hildebrand went on to he believed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras had been overtaken by “crazy lefties” who want to take all the fun out of Mardi Gras, and he didn’t think it was fair for people to hold the police accountable for the alleged actions of police constable Beau Lamarre-Condon who is accused of the double murder Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
