ROdown Blog
Sydney Mardi Gras 2011
I didn't miss a Sydney Mardi Gras parade between 2004 and 2009 and I found it a pretty inspiring event the first few times I went, in fact I 'came out' a few days after Mardi Gras in 2006, I've made friends there that I still have to this day and have mostly fond memories of those nights.
However, I have to admit I had the lost the spirit in the last couple of years mostly because of the over-crowding, intense police presence and occasional encounter with homophobic people. This year's Mardi Gras I was given the chance to walk in the parade with Twenty10's float, and it was awesome.
The theme of the float was "Kids with Grattitude", within the writing on the float images of people who have inspired the youth at Twenty10 were pasted, some of the people included were Ellen Degeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Lady Gaga, Ruby Rose, Chris Colfer from Glee and Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror.
We were also all given shirts with the words "Thank You" on them, which we then decorated and wrote things we were thankful for on, like 'Love', 'Pride', 'Music' and 'Mum and Dad'. On my own I had written Thank You 'For The Courage' which was my own kind of tribute to those who had fought for the rights of GLBTI people and for women's rights.
I think the wonderful thing about this float is that sometimes you forget that you are not the only queer person in the world, it can get pretty lonely especially when you are first accepting your sexuality, sometimes you feel like the whole world is against you, sometimes mean bigoted people say something to you that makes you wish you weren't queer and then you definitely don't feel thankful for much.
Since around this time last year however, I have found myself part of large queer community which just keeps growing, first I met the people from Twenty10 at a Mardi Gras event last year, which was one of the greatest days of my life and secondly I found the online blog site Tumblr which has a huge queer community and though there are still comments offensive to GLBTI people they are usually quashed pretty quickly.
Nothing can compare to walking in the Mardi Gras parade though, being physically surrounded by that many supportive people is the best feeling, it was the feeling I had forgotten since my first Mardi Gras experiences and it really does make me so thankful for the people I have in my life, including everyone who is involved in Twenty10, and the society in which I live where it is OK to be queer. I mean we don't have complete equal rights and acceptance yet but we are on our way.
So the next time I'm feeling alone or someone makes me wish that I wasn't queer, I will remember the feeling of dancing down Oxford St, surrounded by 50 or so of my friends from Twenty10, through a sea of people waving rainbow pride flags.
Email this page
Not a member?
Join Reach Out to access a range of great member features.
Forgot your password?
3 Comments
Log in to join the conversation. Join Reach Out.
CassieH
about 1 year ago
Reply ReportThanks for the comments dougsky and chic101 :).
Mardi Gras is a really special event for the LGBT community, being a part of it was really cool.
Chic101, I am bi-sexual as well and know how it feels to be discriminated against because of it. Don't let those people who tease you get you down, you are definitely not alone. We recently made a video about coming out and bullying, you should check it out :)
- http://au.reachout.com/connect/blog/u-r-not-alone
chic101
about 1 year ago
Reply Reporti heard the mardi gras was great i'm going next year since i'm bi-sexual. it's so hard cause i get teased and i have depression from other things i hate my life. i wish there was a way to fix depression
dougsky
about 1 year ago
Reply ReportI saw your float - it was great! Everyone from Twenty10 looked like they were having an awesome time.