FROM THE EDITOR
FINDING WAYS TO CELEBRATE OUR PRIDE AND SEXUALITY IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST HAVING A GOOD TIME.
THIS MONTH we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sydney’s Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras, and the other global hot spots where LGBTQI people meet to party.
Forty years ago, in 1978, Sydney’s gay and lesbian activists took to the streets to commemorate the anniversary of the riots at The Stonewall Inn in New York in 1969. That impromptu street battle against the NYPD is regarded as the birth of the modern LGBTQI rights movement. As the Sydney protest also unravelled into violence, the echoes of Stonewall were loud and clear. And, as with Stonewall, the Sydney protest became a movement and, ultimately, a cultural festival that helped reform laws and change lives.
This year, Mardi Gras reaches a milestone anniversary and with marriage equality to celebrate and gay icon Cher set to perform, the after party is bound to become a legendary night.
In this month’s DNA, we look further afield to the celebrations that happen all over the world. Our globe-hopping writers and photographers have filed stories from Madrid, Mykonos and Malta, Puerto Vallarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Palm Springs, London, Iceland and more. Yes, it’s all about squeezing your butt into a sexy little dancefloor number, shakin’ that ass and having a good time. Unashamed hedonism.
We don’t need to find excuses to justify our right to party but, if you ask me, a big ol’ party of gays getting down sends a powerful political message. We dance to celebrate our pride, to express our sexuality and to exercise our freedoms – and that’s important because in other parts of the globe, many LGBTQI people can’t.
Right on Australia’s doorstep, our neighbours in Indonesia are planning to introduce tough new religious-based laws against sex outside of marriage – meaning that even consenting sex between adults in private could become a jailable offense. Further, they plan to classify homosexuality as a mental illness. This follows the public flogging of two gay men last year, the arrest of 120 men at a gay sauna in Jakarta, and the recent arrest and humiliation of transsexuals last month. Police cut their hair, forced them to wear male clothes and closed down the salons where they worked and operated businesses.
Elsewhere, Egypt continues to arrest gay men at social gatherings and charge them with public disorder offenses – homosexuality is not technically illegal in Egypt. It is, however, now illegal to display the rainbow flag, a symbol of our freedom.
Chechnya’s arrest and torture of gay men may even be continuing. The government has bullied and harassed human rights groups out of the country, so we have very little idea of the situation. But Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov maintains there are no gay men in Chechnya and therefore no persecution.
When we party, when we celebrate, we send a message to other parts of the world. To the LGBTQI people living hidden, fearful lives, it’s a message of hope. To the oppressors, it’s a message that change happens, that civil rights can be fought for and won, that tyranny can be chipped away and overcome.
If you’re celebrating Mardi Gras in Sydney, Pride in Madrid, or dancing for days in Barcelona or Mykonos, have an amazing party, and do it for those in Egypt, in Chechnya, and Indonesia. Exercise your right to party and show the world your pride. Enjoy!
Andrew Creagh, Founding Editor