Aphrodite herself, Kylie Minogue, was on hand to celebrate Sydney Mardi Gras, the city’s unique version of a gay Pride festival. Thousands marched down Oxford Street on Saturday—the culmination of weeks of parties, concerts, screenings and more—decked out in costumes celebrating a theme of “Infinite Love.” Other performers included Sam Sparro, Sneaky Sound System, Shauna Jensen and RuPaul. (You can watch an hour of highlights from the parade
on the Sydney Mardi Gras website.)
This was the first Mardi Gras since producers re-branded the event as a more hetero-friendly affair. (the “Gay and Lesbian” was removed from “Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.”)
Click through to check out photos from Sydney Mardi Gras 2012
Photos: Kyle Taylor, John O’Nolan, Richard Shears, Newtown Graffiti 
LandStander
Everone else? Do you mean everyone else? heh 🙂
v
Why is it so difficult to post multiple pics as slideshow? Can’t be arsed clicking through twenty times. Get with the program, Queerty.
Stuart
Actually they rebranded from New Mardi Gras to Mardi Gras and struck gay and lesbian from the advertising
Uh ...
Ugh. What an unattractive bunch of men. Do these guys think dressing up like strippers from New Jersey named Destinee is a good look on a man?
jason
Kylie has no talent, sad to say. The Australian GLBT community’s devotion to her is pathetic and almost snivelling.
As for the parade, it’s a conga line of exposed flesh and fetishes. No wonder Aussies have yet to achieve any form of gay marriage equality. They’re lagging behind the rest of the world because they devote all their energies to sequins.
Idi Amin Dada
300,000 people and the photographer couldn’t find any attractive men to shoot?
Darren
I agree totally with Uh. If I wanted a girl I’d get a real one, not some cheesy imitation.
Wants to Know
What is it with fags and talentless old hag singers?
Olive Austin
v- Qwerty wants you to visit one page per photo because it inflates their web page traffic counts. That’s also why they break articles with any substance into paragraph-size hors d’oeuvre. They don’t care how inconvenient it is and they won’t until we, the audience, stop falling for it.
PK
@v: Simple. The hard-reload forces people to reload the page to drive up their number of ad impressions which allows them to earn more!
Whether that makes ANY sense at all given how bloated and slow their page layout is, is another question.
Matt
@ jason – I guess you’ve been to Australia and have a full understanding of the gay community and political scene here? Rather than acting like a supercilious queen (“oh, that mardi gras stuff is so beneath me!”) perhaps you could spend more than 5 seconds analysing what is actually going on here. Mardi Gras is one night – people dress up, they dress down, there are families, parents, friends, political messages (most of which were about marriage equality by the way) and people have fun. It gets a huge amount of media coverage and has done a lot to change Australians’ attitude about the gay community. However, it’s just one part of a broad range of activities to progress gay rights. This year our Federal Govt agreed to allow a conscience vote on marriage equality – a small step but an important one, bringing us closer to a change in the law – as a direct result of political action and rallying by the gay community. I can’t tell where you are from – perhaps a US state which doesn’t allow marriage equality either? – but I would love to know what you are doing to change people’s minds and the law. Being a bitchy queen won’t do it that’s for sure.
david
I just don’t get Kylie either. Or Vegemite. Been to Sydney once – found it just …meh.
Dave
Love Australia and kylie! Both the country and singer know how to have fun and put on a show. Usually boring people who don’t know how to have a bit of craic dont like either. I’d rather holiday in Oz than alot of other countries.
iDavid
You go Matt! We love you guys. Make marriage happen their and pleeze don’t throw too many necklaces at the inmate here, or better yet maybe he’ll choke. Oh my!!! Just remember the movies he’s starred in and it’ll fill in the blanks. ; )
jason
Australia will never get gay marriage. At least there are 8 states in the US which have gay marriage. Poor Aussies are a disorganized gay rabble who can’t win any rights from their masters the Labor Party, a homophobic Party if ever there was one.
Face it, Aussies. You’ll never get gay marriage like we have. You’ll always be second-class citizens in your own country. Loving Kylie won’t bring equality to you.
Matt
@ jason, you obviously have a very large chip on your shoulder about Australia – perhaps a bad experience here or just jealous you will never visit? I notice you didn’t respond to my questions about whether you’ve ever actually been here, whether you live in a State with marriage equality or whether you’ve ever actually got out from behind your computer to do anything for gay rights, so I’ll assume you’re a bitter, ignorant queen who never has, you don’t and you never will. A shame, it’s not such a bad place and in the history of gay rights Australia has moved much faster than many other countries (including the US). We’ll get federal marriage equality faster than the US too – because we Aussie gays actually get out and do something about rather than sit behind a computer and whinge like you. You didn’t see the 10,000 strong rally demanding marriage equality from our so-called “Labor Party masters”? No? Didn’t think so. Now, begone, before somebody drops a house on you!
Danny
Jason, get a life, whinging on an internet forum does not make you intelligent OR interesting!
No, Australia doesn’t have marriage equality yet (and honestly, which anglo-saxon countries can truly boast that they do?), but the debate is in full flight and no one knows where it will end.
Australia has some very important wins under its belt, most notably the way the Federal Government of the time tackled the AIDS threat in the 80s effectively and without homophobia, so I wouldn’t put it past them to pull a rabbit of the hat.
We hope.