It was June 24, 1978, the start of what was supposed to be a peaceful movement that ended in violent clashes with police, 53 arrests and public shaming for many of those involved.
Sydney's first Mardi Gras was far from the hugely popular flesh-and-sequins extravaganza it has become. It was a rag tag bunch of activists from the gay community who were tired of being treated as second-class citizens.
They organised a morning march and late night street party to be held in Sydney in commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York: a violent, spontaneous act of resistance to the ongoing police persecution of homosexuals that had birthed the gay rights movement in western countries.
“Every day was difficult for us,” recalled '78 march participant Robyn Kennedy who was 24 at the time. “There was overt hostility and oppression and discrimination. You couldn't walk down the street holding your partner's hand.”
The morning’s march was organised by the more politicised Gay Solidarity Group; while the Taylor Square event at night was envisioned as more of a street party, suggested by the Campaign Against Moral Persecution, to reflect the community's creativity, humour and spirit.
The group of more than 500 planned to march behind a flatbed truck along Oxford Street to Hyde Park.
The 1979 Sydney Mardi Gras march. The pink triangle was the symbol Nazi Germany forced homosexual concentration camp prisoners to wear. Source: Robert French - supplied
"And the word went out that it was a party, so people dressed up, you know bizarre hats and makeup, frocks and all that kind of stuff,” Ms Kennedy told SBS News.
The march had a permit to proceed, but the mood quickly turned ugly. The protesters chanted “stop police attacks on gays, women and blacks,” and when the march turned from the designated route to head up to Kings Cross, the police moved in.
Ms Kennedy said the police “arrived on mass and had removed their identifying badges, basically started bashing people and throwing them in to paddy wagons.”
53 people were taken to Darlinghurst Police Station and charged under the Summary Offences Act.
"It was pretty bad in the cells, people were beaten up, some people very badly, who still are traumatized from their experience,” Ms Kennedy said.
Robert French, who went on to launch Sydney’s 1984 Mardi Gras parade after homosexual sex was decriminalised in the state, told SBS News “they were grabbing people, targeting people and dragging them back into the police station and it seemed to me they were particularly targeting women."
The harsh treatment of participants' sparked resistance, and Kings Cross passers-by reportedly joined in the fight against the cops.
“The really important thing about the night was that the people who were there fought back,” Ms Kennedy said.
Perhaps ironically, the police crackdown only galvanised the movement and their fight for civil liberties.
"The first Mardi Gras may very well have been a one off event, but the police by their actions helped politicise and perpetuate it,” Mr French said.
It is extraordinary to recall now, but newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald, published the names and alleged offences of the 53 charged, effectively outing them. The Herald formally apologised to those 78ers in 2016, for what was standard practice at the time, but had serious consequences for many, including lost contact with their families or losing their jobs. In 2016 the NSW government also made an official apology, followed by the NSW Police Force, for their ill-treatment of the 78ers.
Party or politics?
A performance at the 1980 Sydney Gay Mardi Gras parade. Source: Robert French - supplied
“To me it will always be a political event and I sometimes bemoan the lack of political content in some of the floats,” said Mr French. “I mean, how many pretty marching boys or dykes on bikes can we have in a parade?”
But he said the campaign for marriage equality had gained much impetus from the involvement of Mardi Gras participants in recent years.
This year's parade will have a large gathering of the 78ers who pioneered the original Mardi Gras.
People dance and perform as they march along a street during the 38th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, March 5, 2016. Source: AP
And with the 2018 parade marking not only the 40th anniversary, but also the first Mardi Gras since Australians voted overwhelmingly to legalise gay marriage, there is likely to be an added, joyful dynamic to the celebration.
“We have moved in almost 50 years from being pilloried, electrocuted, aversion therapy with court sanctions with medical support, we've moved from that to plying our troth,” Mr French said. “That’s an extraordinary journey.”
