The inaugural Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras took place on June 24, 1978. It was advertised as a “Day of international gay solidarity”, primarily in solidarity with the community in the US following the Stonewall riots in 1969 and those fighting the Briggs Initiative in San Francisco, a measure which would remove anyone who supported LGBTQ+ rights from the school system.
The day started with a morning march attended by around 500 people. In the afternoon, there was a public meeting in Paddington Town Hall, followed by a night parade in Taylor Square.
“We had a flat-bed truck with a sound system playing Meg Christian’s Ode to a Gym Teacher and Tom Robinson’s Glad to be Gay. Some people wore fun outfits – capes, floor-length ruffled dresses, bizarre hats and lots of make-up. The Pope even made an appearance. Spirits were high,” the participants, now known as the 78ers, recall on their website.
Although they had a permit to assemble and march, the police confiscated their truck along the route.
“The response from the crowd was electric – we charged over to William Street and up to Kings Cross. We were on the road, chanting and yelling. It was mass defiance, and it was exhilarating.”
Once at Kings Cross, police punched, pushed, kicked and dragged attendees into paddy wagons, with 53 arrests made. Indigenous folk and sex workers had joined the crowd to try and free those detained; “The bashing and arrests bound us all together,” the 78ers wrote.
Marchers were brought to Darlinghurst Police Station, where they were subject to brutal treatment. The following day, the Sydney Morning Herald published the names, addresses and occupations of those detained, which had devastating consequences. People lost their jobs, were kicked out of their homes, and even tragically died by suicide. Over the following months, a further 125 arrests were made at ‘Drop the Charges’ marches and rallies. Fortunately, by April 1979, most of the charges were dropped after it was proved in court that the arrests were unlawful. This paved the way for the Mardi Gras parade to continue as an annual event, and in 2018, the New South Wales Police Force formally apologised to the participants for the pain they caused.
The 2026 parade took place on Saturday, February 28, with a number of the 78ers leading the charge. However, things look quite different 48 years on. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras now features as many as 170 floats, 10,000 marchers and 250,000 spectators. While still rooted in challenging injustice, it is a glittering celebration of diverse identities and creative expression. But not everything can be sunshine and rainbows. The 2026 event has been under the microscope due to the cancellation of its after-party for financial reasons, and conflict with activist group Pride in Protest.
Tensions spiralled after the Mardi Gras board decided not to implement the operational elements of three resolutions, which called on the organisation to encourage parade participants to put trans rights in the spotlight, make the festival entirely publicly funded and write to federal and state governments to demand urgent reforms to anti-discrimination laws, among other things. Co-chairs Kathy Pavlich and Mits Delisle said the decision reflected “the Board’s obligations under ACNC governance standards and the need to ensure all decisions align with Mardi Gras’ values, strategic priorities, and long-term sustainability.” The organisation further cited respect for the thematic choices of parade floats and the continuation of advocacy grounded in inclusion, collaboration and coalition-building for the decision.
Pride in Protest, who have two members elected to the board, remains unsatisfied with the decision. Although they did not respond to GCN’s request for comment, they have been vocal about their stance elsewhere.
“In a time where trans rights are being rolled back in this country, Mardi Gras is choosing to deliberately defy their membership and the motions they passed when in the past they have partially followed through with them. This is a deliberate choice to abandon the trans community politically,” said Charlie Murphy, as reported by Star Observer.
Rainbow Cumberland, an LGBTQ+ group in Western Sydney, also condemned the decision. In a collaborative Instagram post with Pride in Protest, they wrote: “Mardi Gras began as a street protest with the express purpose of ‘political outcomes’ for the queer community. It is shameful that the trans community is being openly abandoned by the Mardi Gras board of today.”
Pride in Protest also launched a petition for the board to call an EGM to solidify the organisation’s position on trans rights and remove Pavlich and Delisle as directors.
Furthermore, the group was not allowed to march in the parade after it did not respond to a request from Mardi Gras to “delete or retract” social media posts calling LGBTQ+ Jewish group Dayenu “pro-genocide” and failing to provide written confirmation that it had read and understood, and would comply with the event’s terms and conditions. It should be noted that Pride in Protest was given six hours to respond to the warning. Members were still present at the parade, but reports say that some were physically removed by police.
I have spent the last three months travelling around Australia, and decided to stop in Sydney to experience Mardi Gras for myself. While there, I reached out to Pride in Protest and Mardi Gras to discuss the issues at hand. As mentioned, the former did not respond, but Kathy Pavlich and Mits Delisle were available for interview.
Regarding the resolution surrounding transgender rights, Delisle, who has been co-chair of the board for a year, said that trans people are “integral” to Mardi Gras.
“The board is in full support of trans, gender-diverse and non-binary communities,” he shared. “There was concern that if we supported that motion, that we would in a way limit other people’s expressions,” he added, referring to the concepts and contents of other organisations’ floats.
With regards to the conflict with Pride in Protest, Pavlich, who has been involved with Mardi Gras for 36 years, said, “It’s such a shame that it has gone the way it has, but we would still like to have dialogue with them”.
Delisle added that they agree with much of what Pride in Protest is advocating for – trans rights, anti-discrimination reform and so on – but “it really comes down to how you do that”.
“We don’t want uniformity,” he shared, “but we do need unity right now… And I think you saw in the parade, by and large the community is very much unified.”
I spent parade day with the lovely folks at Sydney Queer Irish (SQI), who have been marching for years now. The group was founded in 2010 by Loretta Cosgrove, after the Paddy’s Day parties she was throwing in her back garden outgrew the space. “Every year the parties were getting bigger and bigger, and one year we took the fence down between me and my neighbours and I thought, ‘I’m never throwing a party like that again’.” She established a relationship with The Gaelic Club, an Irish tavern, where many of SQI’s events are held to this day.
“We moved out of the backyard and into the clubs and we’ve been having parties ever since,” Loretta explained.
It was in The Gaelic Club that SQI’s Mardi Gras preparations took place. The group’s theme for the event was ‘Derry’, with a large focus on the iconic Derry Girls TV show, and of course, Nadine Coyle’s passport. The dulcet tones of Girls Aloud filled the room as members practised their dance routine, got glammed, and put the finishing touches on their customised denim outfits. There was excitement in the air, and I asked attendees about their Mardi Gras experiences to date.
Trevor, who is the only member to have marched with Sydney Queer Irish every year, shared: “Mardi Gras and SQI mean to me being proud of who you are. We’re lucky here that we get to be ourselves every day but there’s a lot of people around the whole world, and even in Sydney, that don’t get to be their true selves. So it’s fighting for equality in every single way possible and that’s what we love about it.”
Ryan, who had his first Mardi Gras with Sydney Queer Irish in 2025, commented: “The streets are electric, you can tell there are people from everywhere across the world. When you’re in the parade all you can see is lights, colour, action, music blaring, people laughing, people smiling. It’s just something you need to experience once in your life.”
Valerie and Jinelle were marching the day after their hen party. “It’s our first Mardi Gras together so we’re excited!” they said. “We’ve people who are going to watch us in the parade so that’s going to be really exciting.”
Ronan had never been to a Pride before attending Mardi Gras. With happy tears in his eyes, he expressed, “It really is a celebration of a wide spectrum of our beautiful community. It’s full of glitter, colour, love.”
While there are certainly creases that need to be ironed out, it is clear that Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is still an important fixture for LGBTQ+ people from all walks of life. And, given the event’s history, which was grounded in the act of protest, together with recent community concerns, it’s evident that inclusion, intersectionality, and activism must also remain crucial parts of the event.
For more about Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, visit www.mardigras.org.au. For more about Pride in Protest, check out @pride.in.protest on Instagram.