The '78ers - first Mardi Gras parade

GNN (Gay News Network) has an interesting report interviewing some of the people who took part in the very first Mardi Gras parade. That was of course when the police arrested and bashed people to break up the parade. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like back then for gay people. Here's some of what Ron Austin had to say:

“It was almost like there were all these underlying emotions and a release of tensions – tensions that had been held by people for years. People who wouldn’t walk down the street holding hands, and all of a sudden they were doing it. This was the incredible psychology going on.”

Ron, who had also played a major part in setting up the Gay and Lesbian Telephone Counselling Service in 1973, says the police brutality on the night particularly when the crowd reached Kings Cross’s Al Alamein Fountain most likely had the ironic effect of ensuring Mardi Gras would continue for years to come.

“They blocked us in and caused anger, fear and apprehension while making arrests,” he says. “If the police hadn’t done that, we would have gone home and there would have maybe been no more Mardi Gras’.” more

And regarding the police brutality, this from Sandi Banks:

Sandi ended up being one of those who got bashed, or thrown into a paddy wagon and harassed by the police.

“I was in Darlinghurst Road and basically I saw one woman who was a teacher at the time and the police had just grabbed her. I was in the Lesbian Feminist collective and she was a member of that collective too and I knew that if she got caught she would lose her job,” she says.

“I decided – as one would sensibly do – to go and help out and try and get her out of the grips of police. In so doing that I got myself entangled and I was arrested and then physically picked up and thrown into the paddy wagon.

“I had a leather coat on at the time and the sleeve was totally torn out of my right sleeve. I had black and blue bruising right across from chest. A distinct hallmark of the police – all that manhandling.”

Injured and arrested, Sandi was thrown into the old Darlinghurst cells with others who had been taking part.

“Most of us were young and most of us were students. We were thinking who was going to round up the money to get us out. We were up in the cells in Darlinghurst and I think there were 24 women in my particular cell,” she says.

“It was freezing cold and they threw in a few blankets but not enough for 24 people, more enough for six. And they also put a few buckets of water in there. This was really late at night.”

The police nastiness didn’t end there, with Sandi and the others then moved to Central cells at the back of the old court premises in Liverpool Street during the middle of the night. 

“People who refused to get fingerprinted – they were pretty much forcing you – were actually put away in a cell by themselves and bashed. By the time we got to the Central cells, we knew at least one guy who got a good thumping from the cops. He was only a tiny guy – believe me – and we could hearing him yelling,” she recalls. 

“When we were down at Central cells what the police did was have lights shining upon us – and this was 3am or 4am. This is the middle of June in winter and we’re in these huge old cells, made from really solid brick or sandstone. We were freezing and we weren’t happy chappies.” more