Politics, race, religion mark Sydney Mardi Gras

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the streets of Sydney to witness the spectacle

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Sydney's 25th Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade erupted in a sea of sequins, stilettos, bare breasts, waxed chests, feather boas and thunderous cheers.

Encouraging the hundreds of thousand of spectators to "walk a mile in our shoes" -- the 2002 theme -- the gay and lesbian community gave religion, race and politics center stage on Saturday night.

After the roar of the "dykes on bikes" motorcycle cavalcade, the traditional start of the parade, a large replica of Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral, dubbed "St. Muscle Mary's," complete with attendant cardinals and bishops, took its place as head float.

Organizers said it was designed to ridicule religious institutions which continue to persecute gay men and lesbians.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell, known for his hard line against homosexuals in the church, was also targeted.

Then it was the politicians' turn.

Masked lookalikes of Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock manned the good ship HMAS Tampaphobia, featuring dancing life jackets, flying babies and crew members handing out Australian visas to a disco "Prime Ministerial rap."

Christened by celebrity drag queen Joyce Maynge, resplendent in a haute couture tribute to Australiana, the Tampaphobia lampooned Australia's refusal to allow the Norwegian freighter Tampa to offload 433 boatpeople it had rescued last year.

It also poked fun at government claims, later proved false, that asylum seekers had thrown their children overboard.

"Mardi Gras is ...an occasion when we can empathize with other people whose place in the world is jeopardized by their difference whether that be racial, religious or political," said Tampaphobia spokesperson Gina Laurie.

Queer mile

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Indigenous Australians "walked a queer mile" for reconciliation and justice, and rainbow babies were pushed in prams by their same-sex parents.

Trade unionists joined people of transgender, shirtless Asian marching boys and the "Magnificent Gayviators and their Amelia Airtarts," as the parade, the biggest of its kind in the world, wound its way up Oxford Street.

International visitor numbers were down, attributed partly to September 11, the U.S. economic downturn and the fact that Sydney is also soon to host the 2002 Gay Games.

Some of the month-long festival events also drew smaller crowds amid criticism the Mardi Gras has become too much of a party and too far removed from its origins -- as a protest march, which turned violent when police intervened in 1978.

"There's a whole generation of people to whom Mardi Gras now is about a month of fun, a month of celebration, a month of dance parties, drugs, excesses and the high life," said Christopher Puplick, president of the Anti-Discrimination Board of New South Wales.

One night of the year

Members of Sydney's gay community hold placards displaying their disappointment with the government's handling of the 'Tampa Crisis' and Children Overboard Affair'

"And the people for whom the political agenda is still important don't see Mardi Gras as a particularly significant vehicle," he told Reuters.

Aids Council NSW head Stevie Clayton saw it differently.

"Gay men and lesbians still do not have equality and still experience appallingly high rates of discrimination and violence," Clayton told Reuters.

"For many, Mardi Gras is still the one night of the year that they can feel safe in the streets and feel like it is okay for them to take up space and be themselves," she said.

For the hundreds of thousands of spectators at Saturday night's event, the sheer spectacle of Mardi Gras sufficed.

"I come every year, I love it. The floats, the costumes the whole loud shebang," said 76-year-old Leila Frankston who was watching her gay grandson march.

"It wouldn't have happened in my day, it's just fabulous," she said.