Levity Prevails At Gay Mardi Gras
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday February 29, 1988
Half-naked, leather-wrapped men in cages, pink fairies on roller skates, giant muscle men, a huge blue elephant: Saturday night's mardi gras was the biggest yet.
One gay man said: "This is our night to celebrate. We are here to show the straights that there are a lot of us, that we are not ashamed, and that we don't need pity."
About 100,000 people - it was impossible to estimate properly - lined College, Oxford and Flinders streets as more than 60 floats passed by. Disco music blared from the gay clubs along Oxford Street.
People took to roof tops, threw streamers from balconies and danced on shop awnings as the area seethed in one, celebrating mass.
The floats included dancing fruit cakes, an elaborate Picasso painting come to life, dykes on bikes, and an Aboriginal float satirising the Bicentenary.
From its float, the AIDS Council of NSW handed out condoms.
There was a sense of self-ridicule about the event, with acres of sequins and many drag queens in full regalia. Makers of glitter gel and fishnet stockings must have done a roaring trade.
Observers were by no means restricted to gay people. Parents brought their children, elderly couples travelled in from the suburbs, and tourists showed up in droves.
Mary Murphy and Flo Wair, both 70, travelled from Top Ryde for the parade. They loved it.
"I'll be here next year," Mary said. "I had no idea there were so many of them."
Aggression was minimal, with only a rare and out-of-place cry of "poofter". It was a long way from 1978, when the first mardi gras was marred by violence and 53 arrests.
"Everything went off very well," a police spokesman said, though there were saucy comments about men in uniform as they cleared the streets afterwards.
The exuberant spirit continued as the parade ended at the showground. Fireworks were lit and the biggest gay party of the year began.
Nine-thousand people crammed into the Manufacturers' Hall and the surrounding area, and many of them danced until well after dawn.
At 9.30 am yesterday, when the plug was finally pulled on the music, the last of the celebrating boys, dressed in their now bedraggled costumes, tottered home to abuse from local building workers.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald
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