IS MARDI GRAS GAY FOR PAY?

By Jonathan Duffy

One of Australia’s biggest celebrations of the GLBTI community has been marred by allegations of ‘selling out’.

It has been reported that the committee in charge of the New Sydney Mardi Gras has allowed the sponsored IKEA float to hire actors to ‘play gay’, banned a leading Gay Activist from the Parade because he is from Tasmania and denied regular floats and LGBT people entry whilst allowing corporate sponsors instead. Also the parade and after party were split this year and for the first time they are being held on separate weekends, with suggestions that it was to accommodate a gay cruise heading to Sydney.
The negative press of the event has left some community members wondering what does Mardi Gras actually stand for in 2010?
The committee has stated that the party is not a cheap event to run, and that it has decided to focus on promoting Sydney and New South Wales as tourist destinations.
Activist and tourism promoter for Tasmania Rodney Croome told QNews that Mardi Gras signed an exclusive contract with Events NSW, which precluded any other state having tourist representation at the Mardi Gras market day.
Some of the excluded contributors have been present at Mardi Gras for as long as ten years and have been excluded with a reason of “Not Enough Space” and that they don’t represent our community yet room was made for as well as allen-key-assembled furniture, and Raelians with their message “UFO’s bring love”.
Mardi Gras holds its origins in celebrating and commemorating the original 1978 Gay & Lesbian protest march in Sydney when it was illegal to be homosexual and many people were arrested and treated harshly by police for protesting. It is the largest celebration of its kind in Australia and to many people it is the only national representation of our community they will ever see. It has been claimed by many community members that the message of Sydney Mardi Gras clearly seems to have changed to one brought to you by anyone with enough cash to foot the bill.