Police to march in Mardi Gras, but they have to rebuild trust

The push by some members of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to ban NSW Police from marching in next year’s parade was always going to sit oddly beside an organisation that has its roots in protesting against discrimination.

The narrow defeat of three contentious resolutions targeting police does not release NSW Police from the obligation of redoubling efforts to mend fences with the LGBTIQ community.

The proposed Sydney Mardi Gras NSW Police ban is part of a broader agenda to radicalise the event. Credit: Fairfax Media

As revealed by the Herald, the first resolution, from the board, recommended police be barred until they committed to improving relationships. The second motion, from the activist group Pride in Protest, wanted police banned, while the third proposed they could march but not in uniform.

Mardi Gras has often been riven by internal conflicts. That is what happens when a move to protest exclusion evolves into a broader social movement embraced by the wider community and then into a stellar commercial and tourist attraction. Some politicians, including Premier Chris Minns and federal Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek, recoiled at the vote to exclude police.

Mardi Gras was born of conflict in 1978 when police cracked down on a protest march and commemoration of New York’s Stonewall riots years earlier that sparked the global gay rights movement. The brutal NSW Police response brought national attention and helped make the parade an annual Sydney event. Twenty years after the Sydney arrests, the police joined the parade.

NSW Police marching in Mardi Gras parades invariably sat awkwardly against their policing role. Tension erupted in 2013, when violence and drug searches undercut any growing goodwill and led to the establishment of the 2014 Mardi Gras Police Accord. Establishment of the accord nevertheless was controversial within the community due to historic mistrust of NSW Police, and it came under renewed attack last December following a report from a Special Commission of Inquiry led by NSW Supreme Court Justice John Sackar into LGBTIQ hate crimes in NSW between 1970 and 2010.

The relationship was further challenged last February after the alleged double murder of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird by an officer using a police-issued weapon. The Herald called for police to sit out the 2024 march given the extreme sensitivities in the community after the alleged murders. But, after being initially excluded, a compromise solution allowed officers to march in plain clothes.

For many, the 2024 Mardi Gras was an event spent in mourning, and although the NSW Police established Taskforce Atlas to oversee implementation of Sackar’s recommendations, the weekend’s close vote suggests the anger and hurt have never disappeared entirely.

The biggest problem with the motions to ban the police was that there was no plan to then build relations with the police back to the point where they may be included again. It was not a plan to force action from police, which is what is needed. But the size of the ban vote is a clear indication police need to do much more work demonstrating that the LGBTIQ community can trust them.

Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.