One of the largest such festivals in the world , [3] Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania. The event grew from gay rights parades held annually since , when numerous participants had been arrested by New South Wales Police. On 24 June at 10 pm as a night-time celebration following a morning protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall riots [24] organised by the Gay Solidarity Group more than people gathered on Oxford Street, in a planned street "festival" calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in employment and housing, an end to police harassment and the repeal of all anti-homosexual laws.
After the parade was dispersing in Kings Cross, 53 of the participants were arrested. The police response to a legal, local minority protest transformed it into a nationally significant event which stimulated gay rights and law reform campaigns.
The second Mardi Gras Parade occurred in despite opposition by gay media, businesses and groups. The parade, in recognition of the Stonewall Riots and commemorating the riot of the previous year, was attended by 3, people. In , after the third successful Mardi Gras parade, at community consultations, decisions were made to move the parade to the summer. For most of the decade many lesbians excluded themselves from the event. In , an estimated , people came to watch the parade.
Despite calls for the parade and the party to be banned, the parade went ahead with the theme Fighting for Our Lives. In this year the parade had become the largest ever held in Australia. That year there were floats in the parade with , spectators. Criticism of the Sydney Mardi Gras was perhaps at its strongest during the early years of the AIDS crisis, and flared again when in the national broadcaster ABC telecast the parade for the first time.
In there was criticism over the inclusion of bisexuals and heterosexuals as members of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It was claimed that the subsequent requirement for those people to correctly answer specific questions, created two classes of membership β namely 1 gays, lesbians and transgender people and 2 bisexuals and heterosexuals. In a small group of people who were part of the events contributed to planning the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Sydney Mardi Gras parade in This group became known as the 78ers and has led each year's Mardi Gras parade since The Parade was broadcast on Network Ten and had a theme of gay and lesbian parenting.
