I’ve been out since 1992. My connection with Mardi Gras didn’t come immediately. First I had to unlearn the stereotypical, negative fallacies I’d absorbed during 23 years within a fundamentalist, conservative Christian culture. For a long time, the gay community was a phrase to me, not an experience.
Since eventually finding my place within the community, one thing has become clear: a smooth run-up to Mardi Gras is never guaranteed. Perhaps that’s to be expected as we’ve become more visible and publicly active. Different years bring different controversies. Different flashpoints. And yet, somehow, we always arrive.
This year is no exception, but possibly more than our usual bumps.
The lead-up to this season, and the parade, hasn’t been all sequins and soundchecks. It unfolded in the familiar mix of disagreement, grief, tension, occasional relief, and celebration; some we may have wished hadn’t played out publicly. Many will recognise these dramas; others may have watched from the sidelines on social media, wondering what on earth was going on.
1. The first bump: it started last year
This year’s turbulence began last year, in the lead-up to the Mardi Gras AGM, when questions about the organisation’s future direction moved into open conflict.
During that period, Pride in Protest, a fringe activist group, pushed for sweeping changes that would have excluded corporate entries and sponsors, police participation, and anyone who identifies as a liberal supporter from the parade. Many of us saw this “No cops, no corporates, no conservatives” not as a return to Mardi Gras’s roots, but as a Trumpian-style rollback of hard-won inclusion and acceptance.
2. The response: protecting the institution
Out of this turbulence emerged Protect Mardi Gras, formed to counter what many saw as destabilising and exclusionary attempts to reshape both the parade and the organisation.
The intention was not to silence protest or shut down debate, but to defend a long-held principle: that Mardi Gras belongs to the whole LGBTQ community — including trans and gender-diverse people, activists and allies, corporates, police who march in solidarity, and those whose politics don’t fit neatly into slogans.
3. A reckless accusation
As tensions deepened, another charge landed heavily: Pride in Protest accused Mardi Gras of being anti-trans.
At a time when trans and gender-diverse people face heightened hostility in politics, media, and everyday life, the accusation raised the emotional temperature, leaving many trans people caught in a conflict they had not initiated.
It was a reckless and deeply unfair claim. Anyone who reviewed the Mardi Gras 2026 program could see that far from being anti-trans, the organisation had created numerous spaces and events specifically for trans and gender-diverse members of our community.
4. The celebration that vanished
Then came another blow: the cancellation of the main Mardi Gras party.
For many, it was a shock and a deep disappointment. For years, the party had been a tradition — even a rite of passage. It was not an easy decision for CEO Jesse and the Mardi Gras board, but a necessary one, given the loss of a major venue and the fact that the party had run at a financial loss for several years. Some will remember when it was the ONLY party, long before it competed with dozens of other events across the weekend.
5. Grief among the glitter
As if the year hadn’t already demanded enough emotional bandwidth, the sudden death of Maxi Shield cut through everything.
On Saturday the 21st, a week before the parade, famous drag queen Maxi Shield, lost her battle with cancer at just 51. Within hours, social media filled with tributes, memories, and images. Certain themes emerged immediately: Maxi was a trailblazer — kind, generous, funny, with a wicked sense of humour. She was deeply loved and will be profoundly missed.
Moments like this remind me why I’m proud of our LGBTQ community. We may have our differences, but when it truly matters, we shine.
6. A reminder of why safety still matters
The Wednesday before the parade, revealed by the ABC, brought another sobering development. that young gay and bisexual men are being deliberately lured and assaulted by youths inspired by ISIS ideology. These attacks, fuelled by online radicalisation and hatred, are a stark reminder that anti-LGBTQ violence is not historical or abstract — it is present, targeted, and real.
7. Mardi Gras parade route honoured as a National Heritage Site
On the Thursday before the parade, we had a wonderful announcement. The route was formally recognised as part of Australia’s national heritage, placing it alongside iconic sites such as the Great Barrier Reef and Bondi Beach. The recognition honours the historic first parade held on 24 June 1978, led by activists now known as the 78ers, which was organised to mark the ninth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York. How exciting was that!!! Watch the video.
8. Another moment of celebration
And then, more good news. It was announced that Magda Szubanski’s cancer is in remission, which brought a shared sense of relief. One of our most loved voices. Still here. Still standing.
9. Further growing violence uncovered
The day before the parade, the ABC revealed police had recorded 197 incidents of LGBTQIA+ hate-related violence and charged 103 people with over 320 offences over such attacks from 2023, the year Sydney hosted the World Pride festival, to October 2025.
For many of us, this is a frightening reminder of a dark time in Sydney’s history when “poofter bashing” was a common sport among gangs of heterosexual men and resulted in deaths that were never investigated. It’s important to remember that many of these incidents DON’T get reported.
There is still much work to do.
And yet…
And yet… despite highs and lows, the arguments, accusations, cancellations, grief, and frightening revelations, the parade went ahead — as it always does. A constant reminder that the LGBTQ community has always been resilient. We show up again and again and again. This year was the 48th parade.
So Bumpy Gras is not perfect. But proud, persistent, and still coming through the dramas — together.
I enjoyed every minute.
We are, after all, survivors.
#GodILoveMyTribe
“bridge builders” don’t feel the need to kick the young folk for disagreeing with the status quo. Mardi Gras was started by the sort of people now in PiP, people who aren’t content and complacent. The modern days’ Mardi Gras Inc collaborating with authoritarianism to silence dissent is perhaps a historical inevitability, but to an activist’s heart, it is sickening, as is your collusion.
Just sharing my opinion from what I have observed and read. I disagree with PIP on many levels. You’ve been in the game longer than i have, Norrie. I believe this article was balanced. It wasn’t a specific attack on PIP nor was it intended to be. I mix with the 78ers a bit and some are close friends. It does seem some people have chosen to put their own interpretations on the original movement and that infamous night. I wasn’t there. Even amongst those there, different opinions exist.