The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is the biggest Pride event in Australia. Since 1978, when 53 gay and lesbian people were arrested for publicly celebrating homosexuality while it was illegal, the parade and surrounding festivities have attracted participants from around the world. As the name suggests, its focus is on gay and lesbian people. So why have organisers come under fire for refusing to make transgender people the focus of the 2026 event?
A set of resolutions was proposed during the Annual General Meeting in November 2025. The Mardi Gras Board outlined them in a statement:
- Parade messaging and trans rights: Sought to impose creative direction on parade participants in a way that is inconsistent with our established application process.
- Advocacy and participation of parliamentarians: Write to all Federal and State parliamentarians seeking a commitment to anti-discrimination law reform, and, where such a commitment was not provided, uninvite those parliamentarians from participating in the Parade and Fair Day.
- Funding model: Pursue a funding model under which Mardi Gras would become 100% publicly funded, transitioning entirely away from corporate sponsorship and partnerships.
It is alleged that Board members and staff were harassed in order to sway their decision:
“In the period following the AGM, Board members and staff have been subject to personal and harmful commentary online, as well as a coordinated email campaign seeking to influence governance and decision-making. Some public claims have been factually incorrect, and their repetition has caused distress to our people.
“We want to be clear: targeting, intimidating, or attempting to pressure staff or the Board is not acceptable and does not align with the values we uphold as a community organisation.”
The resolutions were ultimately declined. The Board maintained that it will continue to ally with transgender people, but it will not make the entire gay and lesbian event about transgender people. The statement went on to list the ways the Board “actively engage[s] with LGBTQIA+ organisations in Sydney.”
While Evan Gray, a spokesperson for Pride in Protest, accused the Mardi Gras of “framing” trans people as “intimidating,” this is not the first example of transgender or bisexual people treating gay and lesbian people like perpetrators of abuse for not sacrificing themselves, their vocabulary or their events.
Saying that homosexuality isn’t a choice, and sexual orientation isn’t fluid, is considered hateful or anti-feminist by the BTQ+ community today. If we don’t reclaim the slur “queer,” meaning abnormal and strange, which aims to dilute specificity so bisexuality becomes “just as gay,” then we are perceived as divisive, biphobic and/or transphobic. In 2023, the social media team behind HER called lesbians bigots for only finding the female sex attractive. Gay men and lesbians teaming up in solidarity over being homosexual is often viewed as a threat to female liberation. When lesbians aren’t being perceived as a porn category, we’re being fetishised as a moral, political and/or spiritual position that is attainable for anyone who wishes to identify as us… and we’re considered evil gatekeepers if we quietly protest for our sovereignty.
Inclusivity is great when appropriate. The growing use of sign language and subtitles is important because many people find it difficult or impossible to hear. But it is not gay and lesbian people’s responsibility to sacrifice themselves, their vocabulary and events to placate the feelings of bisexual and trans people. When an ex-partner threatens to end their life because you decided to part ways with them, we recognise that as emotional abuse. Gay and lesbian people are allowed to have their own words, culture and spaces without being guilt-tripped, cancelled or accused of wishing death upon those we refuse to bend the knee to.
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