Over the weekend, in Newtown, the annual Mardi Gras Fair Day presents a family-friendly event, with hundreds of stalls, food, live music, Sports Village, DoggyWood, and many other gorgeous places to rest.
Equality, at Sydney Mardi Gras Fair Day, Newtown, Sydney.
There were eclectic stalls packed here at Mardi Gras Fair Day… and one stands out as bizarre. This is the stall for the Government that opposes marriage equality.
Yes glitoris!
LGBTQIA Academia
The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives had a stall at the Mardi Gras Fair Day, in Sydney.
ACON at the Mardi Gras Fair Day
ACON are a peak LGBT Australian health, research and lobby organisation. They manage Pride in Diversity, a group my previous work linked with. They provide training and accreditation on LGBT inclusive workplaces. They also conduct annual research on the private sector, government and higher education. Guess which is the least inclusive? Academia!
Pride in Diversity finds that a greater proportion of LGBT people in higher education report not being out to their managers, and having experienced the greatest levels of workplace discrimination, especially women.
ACON’s work is important. They had 12 university members in 2016 (working to increase inclusion) but only a couple with diversity awards.
Music
Oh Deni Hines was amazing at the Mardi Gras Fair Day! She freestyled at the end: “I was born in Sydney, in 1970. That makes me 46 this year – no 47. I’ve never played Mardi Gras. I don’t think that’s fair.”
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