Mardi Gras Board rejects motion to not invite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to parade

Mardi Gras Board rejects motion to not invite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to parade
Image: Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: Ann-Marie Calilhanna

A MOTION to not invite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the Mardi Gras parade has been rejected by the event’s board of directors.

A majority of the board voted at a recent meeting to reject the motion put forward at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) annual general meeting held on November 16.

It called on the board not to invite the Prime Minister as an official guest to the parade as he denies the LGBTI community equality.

But a majority of the board decided that the motion was not in accordance with the SGLMG constitution to “build strong, positive and beneficial relationships between the gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, queer and intersex with the wider community.”

In a newsletter, the board announced that after hearing a variety of feedback about the motion from the community and members, it had decided to not follow through with the motion.

“The Board understands members’ concerns about the issue of marriage equality being politicised by the majority parties, to the detriment of the emotional state and wellbeing of our community,” it read.

“As a cornerstone cultural event in Sydney, Mardi Gras values the healthy dialogue we create with a broad spectrum of political parties.”

You May Also Like

7 responses to “Mardi Gras Board rejects motion to not invite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to parade”

  1. Malcolm should NOT be invited to the Mardi Gras Parade. Mardi Gras came into being as a consequence of protest. Turnbull preferred to cave in to his right wing party members rather than listen to the GLBTI community or to his own conscience. Mardi is a public political event, Turnbull is a political public figure and should accept the consequences of his public political decisions. Is he on our side or on his conservative members’ side (our enemies)? He is not on our side and therefore he should not be invited to our party. He can watch it on TV or on the sidelines.
    Mardi Gras ’78er

  2. At least someone or hopefully an entire board, has a political brain in this whole sorry saga. As I mentioned in my response to this stupid motion to ban the PM and hi wife, who have been avid supporters of our community for many years, the problem with Mardi Gras is that it has been hijacked time and time again by different interest groups within the community. In the majority of cases those hijackers have nearly bankrupted the organisation. Put your bloody protest in the parade as an entry. Our community is all for marriage equality but don’t hijack what has to be the independent and apolitical management of the Mardi Gras organisation. You hijackers will come and go like your issue. Yet again embarrassed the community and done more political damaged to the cause than for it. I can feel another financial loss on the horizon 2017.

  3. I say invite him, but don’t let him sit with everyone else, don’t have him in the VIP area; let him have a taster of how it feels to be excluded and then he might have a small inkling of how his governments policies have made every single LGBTI person in this country feel. Sure he can come to the party but he can not celebrate.

  4. I disagree that you should constantly “turn the other cheek”– especially when you’re being beaten bloody by that man’s lack of humanity & his outright lies.

    At a certain point, you become pathetic to allow the abuse to continue with your blessing.

    Turd-ball is a user & a poser.

  5. Dont be rediculous. You can not build a broad meaningful relationship with a two faced Turncoat Gay bashing bastard. The board is corrupt. They are dressing self serving polatics as a constitutional bind. No such bind exists. Panderers. Weak corrupt panderers to a gay basing political party. Well, go right ahead you frauds. You just lost about 50% of the miniscule support you had left. Which is next to zero. Not more than one in one hundred gay people support your hopelessly compromised organisation any more. Your parade is straight. Your party is straight. Your polatics is straight. And you lot are bent. All alone and bent. Not Gay.

  6. Disgraceful!

    Mardi Gras came out of a protest movement. It is now a mainstream event that brings in big $ to the State and Business. Nothing wrong with that, but we should be willing to return it to what it was, a protest event and use it as such either by exclusion or even going so far as cancelling the event on occasions to drive home a point.

    We have an enormously powerful tool that no one seems willing to use for the betterment of our community lest it spoil the party/celebration. Don’t bitch about lack of change if we’re not willing to use what we have to bring it about.