‘We’re not going straight’

‘We’re not going straight’

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) has moved to quash conjecture it is “going straight” after it changed the name of the parade and festival to the Sydney Mardi Gras.

“The objects and policies in the organisation’s constitution have not and will not change and SGLMG remains committed to producing LGBTQI events and advancing LGBTQI interests,” Mardi Gras CEO Michael Rolik told the Star Observer.

“It seems the fear is that the name change signifies a content change as well. It does not. Participation in all our events — including Parade and Fair Day — remains subject to the same criteria and these remain unchanged.”

Rolik acknowledged that some people felt there had been a lack of consultation over the name change, but said it had come out of a survey of members and non-members conducted earlier this year.

“An overwhelming majority said we should call the organisation Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, rather than keep it as New Mardi Gras,” he said.

“A substantial number also suggested other names — the lead being ‘Sydney Mardi Gras’, with comments stating that it was a more inclusive and internationally recognised name, and that everyone knows it’s a queer festival.”

Feedback from SGLMG’s Youth, Women and Community Engagement committees also informed the move, as had a unanimous vote at the company’s AGM this year to include intersex people in the organisation’s constitution — meaning there were now four groups left unrecognised in the name.

Rolik said it was unfortunate that confusion over the name change had overshadowed it’s first season 2012 announcements.

Parade producer Victor Petroff and artistic director Ignatius Jones will return in 2012, while SGLMG will double funding for the production of in-house floats. Community floats will receive additional cash from the Big Gay Weekend funds.

Attendees have also been told to expect an extra-special 30th Mardi Gras Party.

“We’re promising a party like never before in the Entertainment Quarter, transforming it into a theme park — Mardigrasland,” Rolik said.

“You can expect not just a huge RHI production number from Ru Paul but also a bonus intimate show in our little Retroland and there will also be sublime and ridiculous cabaret from the amazing Dame Edna
Experience coming over from London.”

UK electronic act Chicane will close the Hordern Pavilion with a two-hour live set.

SGLMG will also resurrect the Laneway recovery party in 2012.

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23 responses to “‘We’re not going straight’”

  1. Well said Derek. Didn’t know about Gay Times but it’s typical of the direction things are going. They keep saying it’s about inclusiveness but all I see is neutralisation. Neutral. Neuter. A denial of sex and sexuality. Which is a denial of our humanity.

  2. Like many posters to this article and the of majority respondents to the survey, I am against this counter-intuitive renaming. It’s hard to understand what the point was of taking a survey in the first place, if its respondents are entirely ignored. I recall a furore many years ago over the issue of a number of straight people coming to the parties and behaving inappropriately towards genuine patrons. ‘De-gaying’ the enterprise hardly seems a step in the right direction.

    ‘Gay’ has always been understood as a generic, positive (until recently) colloquialism for ‘not straight’. For example I often hear lesbians describe themselves as ‘gay women’. While it’s impossible to come up with a name that includes absolutely every fine nuance of sexualities, deleting from the acronym that which denotes the majority of its demographic makes even less sense.

    While I acknowledge the SGLMG leaves out T and I, SMG leaves out G and L as well! Like the “Sunshine Desserts” sign, which, as the “Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin” TV series progresses, loses more and more letters, the name of the Mardi Gras is now shedding words. What will it be in 20 years time? “M”? Even the British Gay Times magazine has been renamed GT, presumably so people won’t be ashamed to be seen buying it at Tesco’s.

    Sydney Mardi Gras (may as well start now), is such a huge public event, I see this as the first sign of our handing it over as a generic parade with no connection to its activist origins. Some may welcome this as a sign of integration of LGBTQI, but I am mindful of the words on the outer entrance of the Rose Bay RSL “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.

  3. Feel like no matter how the event and the festival might be the sAme, without the words gay and lesbian in the title make me feel sickly closeted by the board. I was not consulted on the name change, I am pretty angry.

  4. I find this absurd, should the Australian Indigenous art festival be renamed the Australian art festival, or International Womens Day could become International Humans Day?
    When you remove the subject from the name of the celebration or event, you remove its relevance and much of its power.

  5. “An overwhelming majority said we should call the organisation Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras” … so we went and changed the name of the parade to Sydney Mardi Gras … That makes sense …

  6. My head is spinning. I have just received an email from MG that says SG&LMG presents SMG and at the bottom says was sent from NMG. Could they make it any more confusing? It is Jenny is right: Stop hiding behind emails and anonymous wall postings and meet your members in person for a full and frank discussion. Hear hear.

  7. I completed the survey mentioned in this article. And I voted for the name change from NMG to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. That survey did not indicate that there were two changes planned: ie one for the organisation and one for the name of the parade/festival. I think that anyone completing that survey would have assumed that the question of a name change referred to all aspects of the organisation, including the public name of the parade/festival. If the question had been asked ‘should we change the name of the parade/festival to Sydney Mardi Gras?’ my answer would have been definitely no. I can see the issue of inclusiveness of all GLBTQI people, but this change doesn’t solve that, it just takes away all identities.

    I received an email from the board to members today outlining the form of their consultation process. There is a difference between ‘community consultation’ and ‘market research’.

    So a message to the board: An email to members explaining your position and saying that you can have your say by sending a feedback email is not sufficient. It is time you got these discussions off the social networks and arranged a formal members meeting to properly discuss the issues. Stop hiding behind emails and anonymous wall postings and meet your members in person for a full and frank discussion.

  8. So if the dropping of the two words gay and lesbian is to make more people feel welcome into the parade… then it looks like other groups need to change their name…such as Parents & Friends of Lesbian And Gays (PFLAG)… using the same line as MG it is currently not welcoming of sisters, brothers, aunt’s, uncles, sons and daughters…and they can (according to MG’s line) only currently can be of Lesbians and Gays… So if Shelly believes the dropping of gay and lesbian for the MG parade will make non gay or lesbian people feel welcome (horrible to think that we never made them feel welcome in the first place) then PFLAG need to change its name to make people who are not a parent or friend of a lesbian or gay welcome into PFLAG as this group (correct me if Im wrong) does welcome those who do not fit into the name of the group… just like the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade has always….but then again I thought the parade was about non straight people and making us feel welcome and strong not straight parents and friends of gay gays and lesbians… on a final note I wonder how long it will be before the more extreme groups such as the the leather pride groups are told to tame it down….

  9. Sydney Mardi Gras sounds more appropriate, which includes everyone. And reasonable, if a name change is so important.

    Must admit, having the Laneway parties is good to have back. Now that is revitalising the past and bring back the fun of Mardi Gras which has been lost over the years.

  10. So, they change the name of the festival to make it more inclusive – because the Gay & Lesbian terms were putting some people off.

    But then in the very same breath, they reclaim these 2 words and add them to the organisation name.

    So now if the festival is all inclusive, can one assume that the organisation running it isn’t? Are they excluding Bi, Trans and Intersex at an organisational level?

    There are so many contradictory messages coming out of SGLMG HQ that they really need resolve.

  11. The re-birth of the “lane-way recovery” bought to you by Justin Hemmes

    Mind you I did enjoy the lane-way recoveries

    SYDNEY MARDI GRAS 2012

    Who cares what its called…its time to PARTY !!!!!

  12. At last, an article that cuts through the emotive.

    Great move reclaiming the name Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, New Mardi Gras is no longer new.

    Mardi Gras has long had more straight people than LGBTQI people attend and watch Parade and hopefully will continue to do so into the future, but the criteria for participation in Parade has not changed and is still Gay to the core. This is our LGBTQI Celebration!

    It’s a shame people (choose to) miss the point of reinvigoration and gretater investment in Parade and Party, our Mardi Gras.

    Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is back, grab it and make it yours!! Celebrate being Gay!!!

  13. “I am not gay, only the men I sleep with are”, is not a valid response from the new corporate Vodaphone Mardi Gras.

    Just because Bob Katter screamed “Homosexual’s stole the word Gay”, to the fanatical applauds of Jim Wallace and his brethren, does not mean the new corporate Vodaphone Mardi Gras should send the word Gay and Lesbian back into the closet. Next they will ban marchers from using these words, as the corporate sponsors do not like it!

    These proud words, Gay and Lesbian, were used on signs by the original marchers in 78. They were not hiding it in the closet, as some people or corporate sponsors had issues with it, they were yelling it. For doing this, many were bashed by the police, their names were published by the Sydney Morning Herald, and some would go onto lose their jobs and go to court. They risked all, so future generations may never feel the shame about their sexuality.

    These words are proud. They are never to be hidden, they are never to be condemned, they are never to be used to hate and punish. They are to be worn with pride. They symbolise what makes this Mardi Gras special, out of the hundreds across Australia, and thousands across the word.

    Here are some links about the original march. Watch them, and you will see many of the original marchers were fighting to end this sort of discrimination. Is this how we reward their efforts, by sending these good brave people back into the closet? The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is not just a celebration of who we are, or what we want to be, it is also a celebration of how far down the Yellow Brick Road we have marched.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojf5Yg9sAnM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBPF5LuEArc

  14. And speaking of censoring out the word gay in today’s increasingly homophobic global climate- check this new homophobic law in Russia proposing to do just that- censor the word gay from the public sphere- http://allout.org/en/actions/russia_silenced

    We are also setting a bad example here if we start de-gaying public naming rights at this crucial point in time.
    (btw- good to hear the majority of NG members voted to always include the words gay & lesbian in MG…. so WTF happened? Were there trick questions, or trickery in the interpretation of the overall consultation to mould an opposite outcome in the crucial PUBLIC naming of the event?). Marriage equality is very important to the new generation, and a greater confidence to come out at younger ages, & more confident to tick gay or lesbian instead of straight on their public web profiles with confidence. Lets wear that confidence in our MG public event name too! Celebrate & share our culture with straight spectators and straight supporters & participants in the parade, but don’t remove the gayness from the name (& hence the core meaning).

  15. The organisation has changed it’s name by adding the words ‘gay and lesbian’ which for those people keen on making the organisation embrace it’s key community more is a step in the right direction surely?

    The festival is simply using the shorthand term ‘Sydney Mardi Gras’, just as most festivalgoers do and is in a similar vein to ‘London Pride’ and ‘Brighton Pride’. It doesn’t for a second change the content or makeup of the festival. If we’re talking names what of Melbourne’s ‘Midsumma’ which appears to celebrate the summer equinox.

  16. IF the Parade is not going straight then why did the ChairMAN(as he calls himself) say the following in his press release.

    “We would love to see people who share our values, but who never thought they would be in the Parade to approach us and share their ideas. There will always be room for a great float which will both entertain and bring peopletogether.”

    “Our hope with this change is to turn Sydney Mardi Gras into an even bigger civic event – right up there with Rio and the world’s other great carnivals – to be enjoyed by everyone, but always remembered as being a gift to the city from its gay & lesbian community and a demonstration of our pride.

    OR is this just another huge F*ckup in the Mardi Gras PR department OR is it oops I let the truth slip and try to back peddle when the members dont like it.

    If these 2 sentences dont say we are trying to de-gay the parade then I don’t know what it. Go on Mr Urmson spin that!

  17. Mardi Gras can claim that taking “Gay and Lesbian” out of the title does’nt “de-gay” the organisation, but that won’t convince anyone. If it walks and talks like a duck…Bad move Mardi Gras!

  18. OMG I am so sick of hearing that the parade is not going straight ………… saying it over and over again is not going to make anyone believe it!

  19. So. Results of a survey were that “An overwhelming majority said we should call the organisation Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras” but they changed it anyway?? why the f&*k would they do that when they had a clear message to leave it alone???????? Sounds like a lack of consultation to me.

    Last time I went to Mardi Gras I was pissed off that there were so many straight people in it. Girls in the parade coming on to blokes in the crowd.. WTF?? Personally, I think a revitalisation means that it needs to go back to being more gay rather than less.