Sunday, March 05, 2023

AUSTRALIA
Colourful WorldPride march closes Sydney Harbour Bridge as PM joins the throng


ByLinda Morris
March 5, 2023 —

Among the vast crowd of 50,000 people who made their way across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday morning, one activist for gender diversity stood alone.

“I’ve got me a spot in the front, and a nice frock. No heels,” said Norrie, the Sydney resident who took on the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the High Court nine years ago and became the first person to win the right to be declared a person of non-specific gender.

“I was the first person in NSW to be declared non-binary. Until then, the assumption had been that you were either male or female,” they said. “This walk is a celebration of how much queer people have gone mainstream, and I’m loving that.”

Sunday’s Pride march shut down the Sydney Harbour Bridge for seven hours as the rainbow-hued crowd made its way from Milsons Point to the Cahill Expressway and The Domain and Hyde Park in what is believed to be the largest public turnout for inclusion since 250,000 people walked the bridge for Indigenous reconciliation in 2000.

It was the penultimate event of the 17-day global WorldPride festival, which arrived in Sydney on February 17 on its first visit to the Southern Hemisphere. The festival wrapped up on Sunday with a live music concert in The Domain, with performers including G Flip and Altar Boy. An estimated half a million people attended the festival’s 300-plus events.

Attended by politicians of most persuasions, activists and celebrities, the bridge walk had been organised to celebrate the right of the LGBTQ community to “claim their own sexuality and self-defined identity, and the right to live those identities without fear or stigma while protesting the ongoing barriers faced by these communities”.

A crowd of 50,000 people who made their way across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday morning.

It was a fitting end to “the most wonderful celebration we’ve had in this country” said restaurateur and chef Kylie Kwong.

“When I think back to when I was coming out 35 years ago, you know, when I was 15 to 19 years old, there was certainly not this visibility and support around the community,” she said. “As some of the community leaders have said, Sydney WorldPride literally saves lives.”

Sunday’s walk was led by 45 “rainbow champions” – influential Australians, representing each of the 45 years since the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as well as its original participants, known as the ’78ers.

The march was the penultimate event of the 17-day global WorldPride festival.

One of those original protestors, Anne Rauch said the WorldPride march felt like a repeat of “what we did in ’78”. “This is about global equality and there’s a whole lot of countries that haven’t progressed. People who identify as gay are killed for that reason.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined the early morning crowd that gathered on the bridge to loud cheers, making slow progress as the PM stopped repeatedly to pose for selfies.

Albanese said the bridge walk was a moment of great symbolism.“It’s about saying everybody should be valued for who they are and that our society is strengthened by its diversity. It’s a celebration of that but also an acknowledgement, being led by the ’78ers that social change doesn’t happen in a uniform way. And it’s not easy, and people have made great sacrifices.”

Actress and comedian Magda Szubanski said she was participating to celebrate five years of marriage equality. “I’m here to celebrate with my people, which is all people, let’s face it.”

Szubanski said she was not out to overtly change minds: “We just go on being ourselves and hopefully they’ll realise, you know, it’s more fun to be with us than against us.”

Among those who turned out were mother and son Shelley and James Argent. James came out to his mother in 1996 when it could be physically dangerous to declare yourself gay in public.

Bearing a sign, “Proud of my gay son”, Shelley Argent said her advice to other parents was simple: “Understand that it’s the hardest thing a child ever does, coming out to their parents, so be patient. Even if you don’t understand, look for support, look for your questions to be answered.

GALLERY

“Put on a happy face because if the child sees you looking sad, the child feels bad, and they don’t want to disappoint their parents.”

PHOTO CREDIT:EDWINA PICKLES

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