It started with a New York drag queen, or so the tale goes.

In the early hours of Saturday 28 June 1969, New York police raided the well-known gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. The police attempted to arrest several of the patrons in attendance, igniting lengthy and violent confrontations between by-standers and the cops. The first two nights of rioting were the most violent, but following clashes with police, there would be a series of spontaneous protests and marches through Greenwich Village's homosexual areas for roughly a week following.

Marsha P. Johnson (also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr.) was an American gay liberation activist and self-described drag queen who is credited for beginning the Stonewall riots by 'throwing the first brick' at a police officer. Johnson, on the other hand, always maintained their absence during the riots' commencement. Whatever the truth, Marsha P. Johnson spent their life fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights, equality, and was committed to AIDS activism.

RuPaul has named Johnson an inspiration, calling them "the real Drag Mother," and telling the contestants of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2012 that Johnson "paved the way for all of [them]."

Global action.

The Stonewall riots in New York are considered the start of a new, more radical gay and lesbian movement. Gay Freedom Day marches began occurring first in the Americas and Western Europe as a way to commemorate the event's first anniversary in 1970. These events inspired LGBTQIA+ Australians such as John Ware and Christabel Poll - two brave individuals who, in September 1970, became the first gay man and lesbian to publically come out in Australia after forming CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) - an organization that began the country's open gay and lesbian activism.

By the mid-1970s, gay and lesbian activism had resulted in some legal and social gains for lesbians and gay men in a number of U.S. cities. However, Christian Right opposition was already beginning to erode this fragile progress. One such retribution was the Briggs Initiative, a ballot proposition introduced by a conservative state representative from California, which would allow the firing of any gay rights advocate from any public school position.

In early 1978, lesbian activist Alison Britton relocated to San Francisco from Sydney in order to take part in the city's Gay Freedom Day Parade, which would be held on the ninth anniversary of the Stonewall riots and focus on combating the Briggs Initiative.

Britton requested the San Francisco organizing committee contact her Sydney friends, Anne Talve and Ken Davis, to invite them to coordinate a simultaneous protest in solidarity.

Nine years post Stonewall.

For many decades, Australian society was hostile to homosexuals. During these years, Australian queer identities and the gay movement were molded by international influence; kept alive by the gay and lesbian news, books, newspapers, magazines, badges, and records sent from the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

After Sydney-based gay activists Anne Talve and Ken Davis received the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day committee letter, they convened a meeting with gay, lesbian, university, socialist and religious groups to plan a Day of International Gay Solidarity. The objective was to begin a response to our own problem of Christian Right backlash, by uniting gay and lesbian events all around the world on Saturday 24 June 1978.

They had planned to hold a morning street demonstration, as well as an afternoon forum. Later on however, the day's events were expanded to include a street party or "Mardi Gras" in the evening.

(The party was called "Mardi Gras" after the Catholic celebration held during the penitential season of Lent, as a gibe to the Christian Right. The phrase is now synonymous with over-the-top costumes, floats, and the LGBTQIA+ rights movement.)

Sydney's turn.

In the evening of Saturday 24 June 1978, about 400 marchers – today affectionately known as 'the 78’ers' – danced, skipped and walked down Oxford Street towards the CBD in defiance of the discrimination and violence they regularly endured. As the protestors reached Hyde Park, the police seized the truck leading the procession and its loudspeaker. The crowd, seeing that access to Hyde Park was blocked, were not perturbed and instead turned their march towards Kings Cross. It was then that the police violently moved in and arrested 53 people.

The authorities' reaction was regarded as harsh and oppressive. The impact of the first Mardi Gras, for some, lasted a lifetime. The next day The Sydney Morning Herald 'outed' several of the marchers - publishing their names, occupations and address on the front cover. This caused some of the attendees to loose their jobs, be cut off from their families, and led others to take their own lives.

The fighting that occurred that night has been identified as a watershed moment in the gay rights campaign in Australia. It solidified the LGBTQIA+ community's resolve to make the next year's event even more spectacular, so by the time 1980 arrived, the post-parade after-party had grown to be even larger than the parade itself.

Despite Sydney hosting the ever-growing Mardi Gras, and being home to Australia's largest gay population, NSW was not a gay law reform leader in comparison to its neighbours. In 1982, anti-discrimination laws were passed in NSW, but it took another two years before male homosexuality was decriminalised in 1984. During those two years, being gay in NSW did not result in termination of employment, but it could result in imprisonment.

Mardi Gras has evolved into one of the most popular nights out in Australia's history, and by the mid-eighties, it had started being covered by major media outlets.

The modern Mardi Gras.

Unfortunately, there is always more work to be done in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights.

As we entered a new millennium, more and more Western countries began legalising same sex marriage, Australia yet again began to lag behind. The Mardi Gras parade was a centrepiece in shifting perceptions and helping to bring about change.

In September 2017, Australians were asked to participate in a postal survey on the question of legalizing same-sex marriage. The vote was nonbinding, but if it resulted in “yes”, then the Australian Parliament were obligated to pass legislation legalising it. The survey returned a 61% "yes" result. Almost 40 years after the first Mardi Gras - marriage equity was achieved.

While LGBTQIA+ Australians, now have marriage equality, we still face numerous levels of violence and prejudice. Transgender people, gender diverse individuals, and intersex people, in particular, continue to encounter significant hurdles due to their identities, in areas such as housing, employment, health, education, and sport.

In 2019, the New South Wales government passed the Gender Equity Act, which allows transgender people to alter their birth certificates without undergoing surgery. While this was a significant step forward, there is still more work to be done. For example, individuals who identify as transgender can only obtain hormone treatment if they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria - a mental illness. Being trans is not a mental health issue and should not be labelled as such; doing so only adds to the stigma, while also delaying access to needed and appropriate medical therapies.

It's becoming increasingly clear that we need to do more to safeguard the human rights of intersex persons in Australia. Recent court rulings have raised crucial issues about how children and young people born with sex characteristics variations are treated. Most recently, the UN Human Rights Committee has expressed concern over treatments (some of which are permanent) given to Australian kids with intersex variations before they are able to provide full and informed consent.

Addressing the burden of discrimination experienced by LGBTQIA+ people in so many areas of everyday life remains a critical issue. By bringing these issues to such a large spectacle, as Mardi Gras is today, we are introducing and slowly educating thousands of attendees and viewers to respect, protect and promote the human rights of all LGBTQIA+ people. Every year the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras reminds us of how far we've come, while also providing a space to continue the fight for progress.

While we've come a long way since 1978, there is still discrimination and violence against LGBTQIA+ people around the world. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras serves also as a reminder that we must never stop fighting for the rights of our global queer community.

United we shine.