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The Sydney Mardi Gras organisers are accused of locking rival online groups out of the upcoming parade and Fair Day. The Australian federal government is considering a plan for a new A$10 million sexual health campaign targeting gay men. In Britain, Catholic adoption agencies will not be exempted from anti-discrimination laws.
Sydney Mardi Gras sponsorship row: business practice anti-community?
A row over a sponsorship deal of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras has erupted after a lesbian dating website The Pink Sofa accused organisers and Gaydar, an international dating web site, for locking rival online groups out of the Mardi Gras parade on March 3 and the festival's Fair Day on February 18.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Liz James from The Pink Sofa said that her members have been refused permission to take part in the parade and have been rejected from the Fair Day, despite having a stall there for the last six years.
New Mardi Gras, the organisation that was formed to run the 29-year-old festival after the previous company went into receivership in March 2002, confirmed the commercial agreement with Gaydar prevented The Pink Sofa being involved in Fair Day and the parade.
James warned that the inclusive spirit of the event has been betrayed by organisers who are forsaking the community ethos the festival was meant to represent."I believe Mardi Gras is a celebration of everybody, but this business practice is anti-community.
"Mardi Gras is a community event, it's all about inclusion, but this excludes people from the community. It doesn't belong to anyone in particular; it belongs to all gays and lesbians.She add, "If they continue with this practice they have lost touch with the community and what the event is all about.”
Her argument is dismissed by Mardi Gras chairman Marcus Bourget who countered that the festival does not exclude any individuals only competing commercial organisations such as the for-profit company James’ operates.
Bourget explained that the event with an annual turnover of A$3 million is a business which needs sponsors to survive like any other commercial event."If not for our sponsors there would be no Mardi Gras.
We have to provide a fair deal for our sponsors.”Gaydar's involvement as the event’s first presenting sponsor last year turned a 2004-05 loss into a A$150,000 (US$115,560) profit for 2005-6.According to the Herald, organisers had reversed their initial decision to leave out state tourism boards from Queensland and Tasmania at Fair Day due to an agreement with Tourism NSW.
The move follows intervention from Vincent Cooper of the International Gay and Lesbian Tourism Association who said commercial exclusion was not appropriate for Mardi Gras."
They need to be a little more sensitive when signing up these sponsorship agreements," Cooper said. "I can understand if Ford sponsored it and Toyota wanted to be involved, but when they exclude gay and lesbian businesses like Pink Sofa, it's just not on.
"The month-long Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival begins this Saturday, Feb 3 and will culminate in a spectacular street parade and party on Mar 3. For more information, visit http://www.mardigras.org.au/.
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