BY ZANNY BEGG
SYDNEY — Fred Nile's prayers for rain may have been answered but his prayers to halt this year's Mardi Gras were not.
Between 400,000 and 500,000 people lined Oxford Street to watch the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. The event was kicked off by a float entitled "Beyond the Pink Picket Fence" which emphasised gay and lesbian parenting rights. This theme was taken up by a number of floats including Children of the Rainbow and PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and dominated the first stretch of the parade.
Around 175 floats entered this year's parade. Floats ranged from veteran groups such as the Melbourne Marching Boys and Girls to first-time entrants, such as gays and lesbians from the Lebanese community.
Two of the more political floats to march this year were the Global Treatments Activists Network and GLAM, Gays and Lesbians Against Multinationals. Both groups highlighted the role multinational drug companies are playing in denying poor people, particularly people in the Third World, access to HIV treatments. The issue was summarised by the GLAM placard which read "Drug corporations are making a killing out of AIDS".
Over 150 people marched as part of the GLAM float, a major achievement for the newly-formed group. GLAM was established to involve gay and lesbian people in the global anti-capitalist movement and to highlight demands important to gays and lesbians within this movement.
GLAM's float was led of by the Cheerleaders Against Capitalism, who chanted "riot, don't diet; revolution just try it". They were followed by a truck which had a giant man in a business suit on the roof with a pink dollar for a head. Elf Tranzporter and DJ Pash performed from the back of the ute, accompanied by Anthony Polson on saxaphone. This was followed by a large crowd who danced, chanted and carried banners and placards.
The GLAM float was focused on building M1, the May 1 blockade of the stock exchange in Sydney. Over 4000 leaflets explaining M1 were handed out to those lining the streets, and Elf Tranzporter kept the crowd entertained with calls to join the blockade.
GLAM organiser Kate Carr said that the float was a "fantastic launch for M1" and that GLAM would continue meeting and organising gay and lesbian activists to participate in the blockade.
One disappointment for organisers was that it was edited out of the Channel 10 coverage of the night.
In a letter of protest to Channel 10, Carr wrote "Whilst glittery floats to the soundtrack of happy house might be palatable sponsorship options for corporations seeking to diversify their consumer base, they are not all that Mardi Gras is about and Channel 10 should stop actively faking the record in an attempt to make people think they are".