Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been accused of stripping two sitting board directors of access to their official email accounts after they sent messages supporting transgender rights to members, amid escalating tensions over the board’s refusal to act on motions passed at last year’s annual general meeting.
Activist group Pride in Protest claims directors Damien Nguyen and Luna Choo, who are aligned with its movement, lost access to their Sydney Mardi Gras email accounts shortly after responding to members’ inquiries about transgender rights and anti-discrimination reform in mid-January.
Mardi Gras has rejected claims that access to official email accounts was restricted on the basis of views on transgender rights, saying governance processes – not "political or ideological positions" – determine directors' access to internal systems.
Both directors responded individually to emails sent by members to them with other board members CC’d, after an activist-organised template email circulated earlier this month asking the board to explain how it intended to act on resolutions passed at the November 2025 Mardi Gras AGM.
Read the emails:
- The first emails from the two directors to members
- The second email from the directors using a private email account
In their replies on January 16, Nguyen and Choo stated they were speaking in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the board, and reiterated their support for the resolutions, which included commitments to publicly back transgender rights and call for urgent reform of anti-discrimination laws.
On January 23, Nguyen and Choo sent a further message to members using email provider ProtonMail, CC’ing the Mardi Gras company secretary, stating their access to Mardi Gras systems had been removed.
“Our Mardi Gras accounts have been unjustly locked just minutes after our last response to you,” the email said.
The directors added: “As board directors, we are bound by fiduciary duties and are not permitted to disclose confidential board discussions or pending announcements. However, what we can say is that we will always push and vote in support of agreed upon members' resolutions on transgender rights.”
In response to questions from Gay Sydney News, a Mardi Gras spokesperson initially declined to address the substance of the claims.
“Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will not engage in public commentary on internal matters relating to the Board. We will also not respond to speculation or unauthorised disclosures,” the spokesperson said.
Gay Sydney News had sought clarification on whether Nguyen and Choo’s email access had been suspended, who authorised any such action and why, and whether they remained directors with access to board systems.
Following the initial publication of this story on the GSN website, Mardi Gras' spokesperson issued a further statement: “Any suggestion that access to official Mardi Gras email accounts may be restricted on the basis of views on trans rights is completely false.
"Access to email accounts is governed by directors’ obligations and established governance processes, not political or ideological positions. It is disappointing that internal governance matters are being misrepresented and politicised.”
The dispute follows a statement issued by the Mardi Gras board on January 20 outlining why it would not implement what it described as the “operational elements” of several member-passed motions from the 2025 annual general meeting.
In a message to members signed by co-chairs Kathy Pavlich and Mits Delisle, the board said that while the resolutions reflected strong support for transgender rights and anti-discrimination reform, they were advisory rather than binding.
“Under our Constitution and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) governance framework, the Board is responsible for managing the organisation’s affairs,” the statement said.
“Consequently, resolutions proposed by members at an AGM are advisory in nature and are not binding on the Board.”
The board said it had resolved not to implement operational elements of resolutions that sought to encourage parade floats to make support for trans rights a key part of their float, uninvite politicians who did not commit to anti-discrimination reform, and move Mardi Gras to a fully publicly funded model.
“After careful consideration, the Board has resolved that it will not implement the operational elements of the relevant resolutions,” the statement said, citing legal, financial and reputational considerations.
The board also raised concerns about what it described as a “coordinated email campaign seeking to influence governance and decision-making” following the AGM.
“Some public claims have been factually incorrect, and their repetition has caused distress to our people,” the statement said.
“We want to be clear: targeting, intimidating, or attempting to pressure staff or the Board is not acceptable and does not align with the values we uphold as a community organisation.”
Pride in Protest argues the alleged lock-out of Nguyen and Choo from their email accounts forms part of a broader pattern of disciplining directors who publicly support trans rights.
“They [Sydney Mardi Gras] just keep spitting on our community. Not only did they say no to trans rights, but they’ve locked out pro-trans board directors? This is the third trans woman [director Luna Choo is a trans woman] in a row the board has tried to force out,” said Pride in Protest spokesperson Evan Gray.
Former Mardi Gras board director Charlie Murphy, who was aligned with Pride in Protest during her time on the board, said disciplinary action against trans directors was not new.
“I was one of the very few trans people on board within the last 10 years, and most of the trans people on Board have faced disciplinary action for their involvement in political action while on Board. I was stood down on the basis of joining a queer rights protest in 2021,” Murphy said.
“In a time where trans rights are being rolled back in this country, Mardi Gras is choosing to deliberately defy their membership and the motions they passed when in the past they have partially followed through with them. This is a deliberate choice to abandon the trans community politically.”
Other former Pride in Protest-aligned board directors echoed similar concerns.
“The transphobic rejection of member motions is full of hypocrisy. It's a disgusting shame that the most recognisable queer rights community organisation in NSW would so fundamentally fail to support the trans community,” said Skip Blofield, a former Mardi Gras board director aligned with Pride in Protest, who was removed from the board in 2023 after failing to attend multiple board meetings.
Luc Velez, also a former Pride in Protest-aligned board director, said: “The Mardi Gras board has refused to use their platform to advocate for our community. The Parade is the time of year when so many people are looking to and thinking about us queer folk.”
Editor's note: Journalist Ben Grubb's Mardi Gras membership has lapsed. I’m going to let it expire so I don’t need to continue to disclose membership in future stories. For what it’s worth, I was paying $50 yearly for membership to access discounts at retail stores and bars, but did not exercise the membership’s voting rights. Given Mardi Gras now allows media to attend their AGMs without membership, I see no further need for it.
Ben Grubb is the founder and editor of Gay Sydney News, an independent publication covering LGBTQIA+ news. A journalist with more than 15 years' experience, he has reported and edited for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAToday, Brisbane Times, The Australian Financial Review, News.com.au, ZDNet, TelecomTimes and iTnews, primarily on the topic of technology. He previously hosted The Informer, a queer current affairs program on Melbourne’s JOY 94.9 radio station, and contributes to LGBTQIA+ media including Stun Magazine. Ben has also appeared as a technology commentator on Channel Ten's The Project, ABC RN’s Download This Show and commercial radio stations 2UE, 2GB and 6PR. Contact Ben: [email protected]
