Australia’s Role In Global Pride

Australia and New Zealand are geared up to kick off this year’s Global Pride event.

While hundreds of Pride festivals from across the globe were cancelled due to Covid-19, the Pride spirit lives on this year with the Global Pride 24-hour online broadcast.

Coordinated by InterPride and Mardi Gras, Global Pride 2020 will attract up to 300 million viewers around the world, with Australia and New Zealand set to start the show with two and a half hours of footage from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

This year, InterPride and Mardi Gras worked with the teams at Tropical Fruits and many more Pride organisations from across Australia, along with our Kiwi Queers in Auckland Pride and the Wellington International Pride Parade.

Global Pride 2020 was launched on April 1 as a partnership between InterPride, the European Pride Organisers Association, and national Pride networks across the globe.

Led by a team of global volunteers, this year will show that while we are at our most distant, everyone can still take part in Pride.

 Co-President of InterPride, Julian Sanjivan said that this year marks an historic occasion that everyone across the world can all take part in the same Pride celebration.

“By taking Pride online, not only are we making sure that LGBTQIA+ people everywhere can still experience the joy and community of Pride, but we also for the first time are enabling people to take part in Pride wherever they are,” Sanjivan said. “This means people who aren’t out, or who are living in socially conservative countries, can take part. The support of these incredible world leaders and performers will mean so much to marginalised LGBTQIA+ people everywhere.”

The online event, as well as further information, can also be found at the Global Pride website here.

This year’s Pride streaming will include performances by big names from down-under, including Courtney Act, Betty Who, G Flip, Mama Alto and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir.

The event will also include messages from Aussie gay icons such as from Dannii Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, Equality Australia, ACON’s TransHub, Bi+ Visibility and the Koori Pride Network Victoria.

 CEO of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Albert Kruger, said that the Australian content of the show will begin at 4:15 pm Sydney time, so it’s among the first countries to start the show.

As such, Kruger noted the importance, as the first cab off the rank, to showcase the importance of being proud in the southern hemisphere.

“Global Pride will reach an online audience of millions across the planet. We want it to be truly global, including a spectacular online showcase of the Asia-Pacific’s best LGBTQI talent, and giving the world an inspiring and informative window into our rights in the region,” he said.

“That’s why the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, in conjunction with Brisbane Pride, Melbourne’s Midsumma, Auckland Pride and Wellington Pride, is coordinating content in the Asia-Pacific. There’s still time for Prides and other LGBTQI organisations, inspiring speakers and sensational talent to join in with Global Pride.”

If you’re interested in joining in while there’s still time, email [email protected].

 Australia’s role as one of the first countries to start the Global Pride celebrations is one of significant meaning, as Australia has a 42-year history of LGBTQI advocacy.

The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras took place in 1978, less than 10 years after New York’s historic Stonewall riots in 1969.

Led by the original ’78er’ protestors along Oxford Street, the 1978 Mardi Gras secured Australia’s progression towards acceptance and celebration of its LGBTQI community, and secured our place as one of the LGBTQI capitals of the world.

As such, we are honoured to be starting the celebrations for the rest of the world this year, and you can be sure that we’ll do it in style.

While Sydney is still set to host World Pride 2023, this year marks our community’s first, and genuinely borderless moment.

Two months ago we didn’t know whether we could even celebrate Pride with our closest friends, and while we cannot all come together in the one place, we can still share Pride together in sublime, digital spirit.

On behalf of Star Observer, we wish the world’s LGBTQI community a truly Happy Pride. While we one day hope to see you, and hug you, and share a laugh or a drink with you as old friends would – we’re just happy to know that none of us will be celebrating alone.

Global Pride is set to be streamed online here from 3pm, Saturday June 27.