Posted on 03/04/2006 2:56:27 AM PST by Aussie Dasher
AN expected crowd of 500,000 people have been gathering roadside at the route for this year's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney.
They can expect to see Kate Moss dancers snorting `cocaine', a spoof of gay-cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain and `friends' of the apparently gay-friendly Dick Cheney.
And of course there will be the essential lampoon of Prime Minister John Howard.
The parade is the culmination of a month of festivities celebrating gay pride and thousands are set to march – or to feature in the 120 floats – with this year's event having a fairytale theme.
Captain Crook of Bennelong was among the glitz and glamour – a pirate with a ship load of conservatism and bearing an uncanny resemblance to the PM, the MP for the Sydney seat of Bennelong.
"This vessel is controlled by a group of mean and narrow-minded pirates, unable to steer a ship, let alone a country," creative director Graeme Browning said.
Also set to entertain the crowds lining streets in and around Oxford Street were Snow White and the Seven Dykes, Camp-Berra Queen Capital and Miss Wagga Wagga.
Friends of Dick Cheney featured, a nod to the US Vice President who has publicly praised his lesbian daughter and who has refused to support a US ban on gay marriage, contradicting his leader George W Bush.
Chair of the New Mardi Gras board, Marcus Bourget, said the event, launched as a political protest in 1978, was still about "expression and about the gay and lesbian community having a powerful voice".
Despite criticism in recent years, he said the parade was still essential because it was used as a forum to push for change in the gay and lesbian community.
"It's about 10 years ago I told my parents I was gay," Mr Bourget said.
"Two months ago for the first time my father asked me if I had a boyfriend.
"My point? Change does happen."
This year's Chief of Parade, soprano opera singer and actress Deborah Cheetham, said she was excited to be leading this year's parade.
"I'm so proud to... hear from my 14-year-old daughter Tamara when she says `Deborah, you're the hero of my entire school," she said.
Please pray for rain, hail, thunder and lightning.
Rule #1 - NO POOFTERS!!!!
Sydney seems to have forgotten THE Golden Rule (Rule 1).
F#ck!ng Inbreds! Are they gonna screw their mommy and daddy during the parade?
No. Afterward (& probably before!!!)
Actually, he was just waiting for you to say yes, where he would ridicule you with the reply...."Do you refer to each other as Gerald Fitzpatrick and Patrick Fitzgerald?"
What are they, gay?
Yer...ummm...YES!!!
Gives new meaning to the term "down under."
****"It's about 10 years ago I told my parents I was gay," Mr Bourget said.
"Two months ago for the first time my father asked me if I had a boyfriend*****
Has your father asked you the big question?
GAY Got Aids Yet?
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