Protest group slammed in mass letter ahead of Mardi Gras board election
Update: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated that the member register must have been provided by a candidate, however it has since been rightly pointed out that any person is entitled to a copy of the register under section 173 (1) of the Corporation Act and a member may obtain a copy without charge.
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A letter circulated to Mardi Gras members has slammed controversial group Pride in Protest a week out from the Mardi Gras board elections.
The authors of the letter describe themselves as “a group of former Directors, long time volunteers and concerned members who have extensive experience and knowledge of the inner workings of the organisation”.
They allege a concerted campaign on the part of Pride in Protest to “seize control” of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on Saturday 27 October.
Pride in Protest’s platform, which involves banning New South Wales and Federal Police and the Liberal Party from the parade, has been a source of controversy.
The Star Observer previously covered Pride in Protest’s stand for the board at length, in an interview where a spokesperson said their motions stemmed from a desire to reorient the organisation around “a different kind of politics, that actively supports struggles, campaigns, and movements against injustice.”
The letter claims that the group have “coordinated and (sic) effective campaign to recruit new members”.
Signed by over 70 people, including two Mardi Gras ’78ers in Frank Barnes and Richard Davies, the list of signatories include a former President and former co-chairs.
Pride in Protest has four candidates standing for the board this year – Holly Brooke, Evan Gray, Salem Barrett-Brown, and Kleon Toffetti.
Also standing are current directors on the board Jesse Matheson and Kat Dopper, current treasurer Christopher Brooke, as well as Adrian Phoon, Rick Macourt, Louis Hudson, and trans advocate Katherine Wolfgramme.
You can view all the candidate statements here: http://www.mardigras.org.au/agm-election-2018
The letter against the Pride in Protest candidates claims that Mardi Gras “was not and never has been a protest organisation”, and urges members to place Pride in Protest candidates either last on the ballot or with no preference allocated.
The other name included in the letter is of founding Mardi Gras member and former company secretary Liz Dods.
The letter was shared on social media by James Brechney, a former director on the board, who was once called on to resign from the board by Dods as well as former co-chair Paul Savage over Brechney’s description of ex-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as a “dickwad”.
Brechney also posted a letter distributed by Pride in Protest outlining their platform and encouraging members to vote for their candidates.
When contacted for comment, Pride in Protest candidate Evan Gray said they would “prefer to have a clean contest of ideas, rather than engage in smear campaigns, so will keep only to the facts.”
Gray dismissed claims “that if Mardi Gras accepts Pride in Protest’s motions its tax deductibility status will be in jeopardy”, saying that organisations which engage in far more political activity than Mardi Gras enjoy tax exempt status.
Gray also noted that Mardi Gras’ tax exemption “certainly wasn’t jeopardised when Mardi Gras chose to exclude Socialist Alliance last year”, and said they were “disappointed in the letter”.
“I would encourage people to move on to debating ideas and values, and to putting them into practice.”
Ban these pride in protest nutjobs
Just imagine the Liberals and police of 40 years ago knowing that not even a half lifetime later, queer people of their ranks not only marched in the parade, but did so openly and proudly on behalf of Liberals and police.
That right there is one thousand times the kick in the teeth to our enemies compared to a childish, problematic and exclusionary ban.
There are still those amongst their ranks who watch with scorn while their members proudly represent their organisations in parade, not to mention the Catholic Church, the Uniting Church, Hillsong, Defence Force, the various universities, RFS, SES, NRL to name but a few. Well, good! Let them suffer. Let them not see the sky fall in, let them be shoved in the right direction towards understanding that their organisation will no longer be known fully as the home to bigots and homophobes. Let them truly come to the realisation that they are an irrelevant relic losing their grip on power and control. That is what turns the tide.
The truth is, Mardi Gras is a platform, protest and celebration for the entire queer community, not just a specified political subset. The first members of these groups to stand up proudly, in public, alongside their queer brothers and sisters were heroes. They risked of exclusion, abuse, ex-communication, sacking, even death so that they can tip the political scale towards visibility and respect for LGBTQIA+ Australians on all sides of the political spectrum and from all kinds of workplaces.
I say we never ban them, but hold them high and give them a shining light, it might just make this country a better place.
The role of Board members is governance of the organisation, not to use it as a platform for their own political ambitions. Protest has always and should always be an integral part of the parade, but the role of the Mardi Gras (the organisation) is to facilitate the protest not direct it.
I’m all for a general ban on the Libs, LNP, Nats, One Nation, Katter’s Mad Hatters and any other political party which has and continues to actively work against equality with the proviso that special exemptions are issued for only those who have actively been champions for progressing our rights.
Don’t for a moment believe there aren’t substantial elements in the Libs/Nats/LNP who would decriminalise homosexuality in a heartbeat and are on the ascendency in those parties.
In short, invite only the moderates and pillory the rest.
Who is next on this mob’s banned list?
They want to ban gay Liberal members of parliament Don Harwin and Bruce Notley-Smith from attending.
They’d also ban Trevor Khan a National Party member who co-sponsored a NSW Same-Sex Marriage Bill in 2013, and recently helped get rid of the state’s odious “homosexual panic” defence.
Mardi Gras is for all who support it – regardless of how they vote in an election.
I sympathise in many ways with those advocating a ban on Liberals and the cops but can’t condone or support it. This policy would have made sense when fighting the battles as they existed 20 or 30 years ago. Are they fully won? No. But the battle lines have moved a very long way in favour of LGBTQI folks in that time.
Now is not the time for banning anybody. That time existed but has passed. There are still issues to be resolved and battles won but good diplomacy and not shutting down communication is the solution.
Any person may request the membership register.
There should be no implication in this article it came from a candidate.
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