The 2026 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) Parade has unprecedentedly excluded queer activist collective Pride in Protest (PIP) and their protest float “Celebration Without Compromise”.
Since 2018, PIP have organised movements to kick out the NSW and Federal Police Force floats, the Liberal Party, and corporations from the Mardi Gras Parade; stopping the overpolicing of Mardi Gras; and cutting unethical ties to sponsors like Gilead, a company that price-gouges on HIV prevention medication, PrEP, and sponsors with investments in genocide; all in part to bring Pride back to its radical roots. They’ve also entered the Mardi Gras Parade, often colouring their float with Blak and Palestinian solidarity, under banners of “No pride in genocide”, and “No pride in detention”.
The night before Mardi Gras, the contact person for PIP’s parade float received an email from Mardi Gras CEO, Jesse Matheson, alleging that PIP breached the T&Cs of Parade participation. Specifically, the Code of Conduct regarding harassment, bullying, and discrimination of other people or groups was raised. Not meeting the T&Cs also affects eligibility criteria for participating in the Parade in the future.
The allegation against PIP was regarding an anti-genocide social media post. Matheson said that unless PIP deleted posts calling out the Zionist LGBTQIA+ social group Dayenu, who, after the rally against Israeli president Isaac Herzog, urged Mardi Gras and NSW Police for a stronger police operation and heavier police presence, PIP would be banned from marching.
The float contact person for PIP works full-time in the medical sector and therefore could not respond. They were only given till Close Of Business (end of the working day) to reply, less than 6 hours after receiving the notice. A request for an extension to the deadline was declined.
In 2024, Dayenu publicly opposed the SGLMG Board's open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. At the time, the LGBTQIA+ Jews of Tzedek Collective denounced Dayenu's "anti-Palestinian" statement and called them out for "holding onto Zionist ideologies and the perpetration of genocide". Following this, Dayenu paid former board director of SGLMG, Louis Hudson, to visit Israel.
Our Pride shouldn’t stand for the genocide and mass murder of children in Palestine. Our Pride shouldn’t stand for the oppression of the most marginalised. As PIP has explained, the allegations of breaching of the T&Cs could easily apply to NSW Police, who have physically assaulted and discriminated against our community and the Pride in Protest collective. The T&Cs could also apply to the Liberals that somehow are welcomed at the Parade, even when they call for Mardi Gras to be defunded and, in other states, are locking up trans women in men’s jails and taking healthcare away from kids.
With members' motions that passed at the last annual general meeting of the Mardi Gras organisation which urged politicians to commit to anti-discrimination reform, or not be welcome in the Parade; and the ongoing community calls for the NSW Police float to be kicked out of the Parade, it is unfortunate that this grassroots queer community float was excluded instead.
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