Amnesty OK with parade change
Organisers of the Amnesty International parade entry have agreed to adjust their float, after New Mardi Gras raised concerns about the design.
Amnesty had planned to feature nooses at the head of its float as a visual reminder of the death penalty sentence for homosexuality in some countries.
However New Mardi Gras said it was concerned that such a potent image could instead raise thoughts of suicide -” a point accepted by Amnesty float organisers.
Mardi Gras’ perspective on the issue of nooses should be taken at face value as a legitimate concern, group convenor of Amnesty’s NSW GLBT group, Lizzi Price, told Sydney Star Observer.
We’ve had ongoing discussion with Mardi Gras about our float and they raised the issue that the nooses, for a lot of people, might make them think of suicide, and in particular youth suicide, which we accept as a really valid point.
While Amnesty has accepted New Mardi Gras’ position, some in the community claim the move is a case of sponsorship over censorship.
Activist norrie mAy-welby has taken issue with the changes.
It seems there is no visual image representing the death penalty and this surely dilutes the message in a noisy attention-diverting parade, mAy-welby said. I bet no concern has been raised about goths or pirates or others with skulls on their costumes or designs.
Price said Amnesty float organisers discussed Mardi Gras’ concerns at length before making the changes.
For Amnesty it’s [the noose] a pretty potent symbol of the death penalty, so we had some discussion around it, but honestly, my paid job is as a mental health worker so I was actually more like, -˜Oh, I can’t believe I didn’t see that’, she said.
In the anxiety that was created by having to change the parade float at the last minute, many theories were discussed and there were people who asked why we couldn’t have the nooses, but then it was like, -˜You know what? Youth suicide, gay and lesbian community’ -” it made sense to change it.
We’ve got a really big group of people this year, so obviously different people will have their own perspective on things, but overwhelmingly the majority of us see that it was a good point for Mardi Gras to raise. We’ve altered things so the message is still clear, but we don’t have to distress anyone.
I have always been a full supporter of Amnesty International!
I agree with D. A good compromise. If it is too late now to do that maybe for next year.
Maybe would be better to carry placards with A3 posters of the Iranian teens being hanged (or the photos leading up to it). Those two guys need to be remembered. Gays there are either forced into sex changes, or hanged. The president said “there are no gays in Iran” for a reason.
Chris, I’m not from Amnesty so I can’t speak for them, but when they say nooses “might make [spectators] think of suicide”, I think they mean people will interpret the nooses as a reference to suicide, not to the death penalty as was intended. They may have removed the nooses to make the message less confusing.
Alternately, they could have decided that nooses would be distressing to LGBTIQ people out there who had lost their friends/loved ones to suicide.
I suspect, however, that this isn’t the whole story, and that NMG’s motive is that they want the parade as nice and cheery as possible, meaning they want it depoliticised.
This is really insane. How on earth would seeing a noose suggest to someone to kill themselves. Are we going back to the old fashioned “if we talk about suicide it will make people do it”. Mardi Gras have no reluctance to have alcohol sponsors so with their own logic they are then encouraging alcohol consumption. Obviously Amnesty didn’t want a ruckus about it. And guess what GLBTI people are hung in some countries, that is the reality.