Star Observer – marching into the future
Image: Star Observer float, Mardi Gras parade 2019
By Mike Hitch
The Star Observer magazine, through its 41 years of service to the LGBTQI community, has raised an entire generation loud and proud members from all walks of life.
As another long-standing pillar of Australia’s LGBTQI community, Mardi Gras represents a time when the Star Observer and the community as a whole look back at our past to learn, understand and respect the queers who came before us.
However, while we look to the past for guidance, we must also look to our future for hope, and revolution. During the 2019 Mardi Gras parade, Star Observer walked for the first time to celebrate forty years of providing the LGBTQI community with a platform to inform, raise and honour community members and their allies. This year as we celebrate the big ’41’ we are now facing the impacts of impending climate change, and a world where the gap between acceptance or demonisation of the LGBTQI community grows increasingly wider.
This year we celebrate ourselves, but also what matters most to the LGBTQI community and the world generally. This year’s float and our participation in the Mardi Gras parade looks to the future generations of community members who will carry the torch for the battles to come – and boy, we’ve got some uphill battles ahead. Climate change, first nations recognition and community progression are what matters most to the Star Observer this year.
Star Observer, through our work, our participation and our place in the Mardi Gras parade, invite the community to come together and hold each other’s hands as we step into a new and darker age. While the challenges we now face are greater than those that have been seen before, we will walk together to meet them.
After all, if there’s anything that Aussie history has taught us the LGBTQI community is tougher than press-on nails, and more resilient than a polyester wig.
We will dance the night away with glitter, glam and of course, gayness, while also acknowledging our heritage and those who are a part of it. Join Star Observer this year as we celebrate what matters – past, present and future.
