Amnesty Goes Orange at Mardi Gras 2007

• Published on 1/06/2007
• Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex Network (NSW)

This year, just as last year, the Amnesty International float organized by the LGBTQ Network for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, held on March 3, was a great success. The float's Guantanamo Bay theme on the one hand, and "Defending Love" message on the other, combined a silent and dignified protest on behalf of all oppressed prisoners with the joy and exuberance of celebrating all the good work we've done over the last year and have planned for the one to come.

Planning for the float began last December with a general call for volunteers to help us in the process of planning our entry. Months of hard work and organization did not prevent the last minute chaos of the newly-painted orange Amnesty tank initially not fitting onto the truck that was due to carry it to and along the Parade route, and of the organization of the float suddenly changing at the last moment when the dancers, who were originally meant to lead the float, became Guantanamo prisoners instead, the whole message of the float therefore becoming far more hardhitting. The Parade, occurring as it did the day after David Hicks, after five years of detention at Guantanamo, was finally charged with the single charge of providing material support to a terrorist group, made this issue particularly topical, as did the lead up to the Parade when the David Hicks issue was on the front page of major Australian newspapers every day.

A further dimension was added to our participation in the Parade this year by the filming of a documentary about our float (view an abridged version of this from this website). Along with the work of our stills photographers, whose handiwork appears here or is archived (follow the link from this page), we hope the documentary will capture all the colour and life of the float, from the silently trudging prisoners and threatening prison guards at the front of the tank, to the huge orange tank itself, then to the bulk of our approximately 150 participants in their black T Shirts with silver-hearted "Defending Love" logo carrying placards and giant red hearts, and finally to the three liberated ex-prisoners who completed the Guantanamo story we were telling.

We thank all who participated in the planning and staging of our entry into Mardi Gras this year, and look forward to our even greater presence next year when the Parade celebrates its 30th year. As it is, numerically we were already one of the largest entries this year. And we welcome participation by anyone (you need not necessarily identify as LGBTQ) at our meetings which are held at Amnesty's new Activist Resource Centre on Level 1, 79 Myrtle St, Chippendale, held on the first Wednesday of every month at 6.30pm. For further details of these email us at nswlgbtqnetwork@amnesty.org.au. Also, if you'd like to purchase copies of the complete DVD or a CD with approximately 650 images of our Parade experience on it, email the address below. The DVD is selling for $10 and the CD for $5.

nsw News