Sexual Citizenship and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Abstract

Since its beginnings as a parade and protest in 1978, the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has become something of a national juggernaut of queer pride in Australia, as well as an international tourist destination. At the centre of this event is an annual parade through the queer heartland of Sydney, comprised of floats and marching groups of performers. This article will investigate the changing stories told about the Australian nation at this march and its associated commemorative events. Tracing the history of the parade and associated storytelling offers a unique chance to trace the contradictory claims to and contestations over sexual citizenship over 40 years. While recent storytelling at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has often been tied to a pleasing liberal narrative of incremental reform and the recognition of sexual rights within the nation-state, the Mardi Gas parade has actually been a site of continual contestation over the terms of national inclusion and the limits of sexual citizenship. How, then, have the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras queered the sexual and racial dimensions of citizenship in Australia, and what are some of the different historical forces and transformations that have inflected and reshaped these moments?