Conservatives Are Freaking TF Out About NSW Liberals Leader Marching In Mardi Gras
Image: NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane and Family First politician Lyle Shelton. Courtesy Wikipedia/ NSW Liberal Party
NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane has ruffled the feathers of some conservative peers with her plans to march in Mardi Gras, with a “Kellie and the Sloane Rangers” Liberal Pride group, who will be wearing cowboy costumes including hats and boots.
While it’s not Sloane’s first time marching in Mardi Gras, it will be her first time as Liberal leader — and wow the girls are fightingggggg.
As reported to The Sunday Telegraph, Sloane’s participation in the march was raised at a party room meeting earlier this month, and it’s understood that Liberal MPs Tanya Davies and Rachel Merton raised reservations about the plans, especially the message it sent to party members.
“The general question was, it this really a good idea?” the source said.
Ms Davies told The Telegraph that her concerns were that voters might question whether it was the right priority at a time when so many people were struggling.
Only recently Liberal MP Chris Rath called for the Minns government to review funding for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras amid claims it had been “hijacked by left-wing extremists”. Mr Rath also plans on marching as one of the “Sloane Rangers” at the still-funded Mardi Gras however, and has said that his comment specifically related to groups like “Pride in Protest” who he claimed wanted to exclude police and Liberals from marching in the parade.
It should be noted that Rath had a stall at Fair Day, less than a fortnight after calling for Mardi Gras’ funding to be reviewed.
Liberals’ Mardi Gras participation has been a contentious for many years
The inclusion of the Liberal party in Mardi Gras has been a contested issue before, with Pride in Protest spokesperson Holly Brooke saying the Liberal Party should be banned from the parade in 2018, as Coalition policies, including the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey, had harmed the LGBTQIA+ community.
“A Liberal float in Mardi Gras sends the message that this organisation can actively fight against our rights but can capitalise on our community spirit when it’s useful for them,” she said.
Family First’s Lyle Shelton furious over Sloane marching
Director of the Family First party and penguin enemy Lyle Shelton, who campaigned against marriage equality in Australia and lost resoundingly, also furious weighed in, saying:
“Kellie Sloane’s decision to march is every mum and dad’s worst nightmare. The last thing parents suffering under the cost-of-living crisis want is the pressure of worrying about LGBTQA+ programs in their kids’ schools. There is direct line from the political activism of the Mardi Gras to Macquarie Street to the classrooms of New South Wales,” Mr Shelton said.
Mr Shelton said the parade also celebrates and entrenches a redefinition of marriage that severs the institution from its foundation in the union of one man and one woman.
However Ms Sloane defends her decision to march as a cowgirl, claiming that the Liberal Party had supported Mardi Gras for many years, and that former premier Gladys Berejiklian had even helped secure World Pride.
“Mardi Gras reflects the diversity of Sydney and modern Australia, and the Liberal Party has long believed in a society where every individual is respected and able to live openly and safely,” she said.
In the 2025 election the Liberal-National Coalition scored weak or unclear commitment on LGBQIA+ rights including ending unnecessary and non-consensual treatments on Intersex people, creating a voice for LGBTQIA+ people in government, and supporting community organisations, as well as declaring no support for anti-discrimination and vilification laws and supporting rainbow families.
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