‘Outing’ incident during Mardi Gras election prompts privacy review

Sydney Mardi Gras board candidate Savanna Peake has apologised after a university student was outed to their family when one of Peake’s campaign flyers arrived at their home – prompting the organisation to review how members’ personal details are shared during elections.

Peake, a Rainbow Labor NSW co-convenor and endorsed board candidate for the Protect Mardi Gras faction, apologised at Protect Mardi Gras’ campaign launch at Stonewall Hotel on Sunday night.

The apology came as a pair of 2018 campaign flyers resurfaced – one with the name of former Mardi Gras directors Liz Dods and Damien Hodgkinson on it that accused activist group Pride in Protest of attempting to seize control of Mardi Gras, and the other the activist group’s reply defending its policy platform.

Those 2018 flyers highlight that this is not the first time board candidates have legally used the organisation’s membership register to contact members via mail during election campaigns and in the lead-up to the its annual general meeting.

They also show that Pride in Protest – which criticised Peake’s mail-out – previously distributed letters to members in what it told Gay Sydney News was a “limited” mail-out in response to criticism of it.

Peake apologises

“I’ve heard that this mail-out may have inadvertently harmed a young person who was vulnerable and outed them to their family,” Peake said at the Protect Mardi Gras launch on Sunday. “I wanted to take tonight to personally apologise and sincerely recognise that that was never my intention.

“As someone who has worked my whole life to advocate for queer youth, to you tonight I am deeply and sincerely sorry … Who knows, they might be around,” she said.

“…I will always be someone [who], when I don’t get everything right, when I could have done something better, or when I hurt someone, I’ll admit it – because that’s the kind of leadership we need.”

Peake said the mail-out was funded by a lesbian business owner from Glebe.

“Nothing sinister, nothing shady. Just one woman [who] wanted to support another because she believes in representation and she knows what I could bring to the Mardi Gras board.”

Protect Mardi Gras was formed to counter what it calls “entryism” by Pride in Protest – a term it uses to accuse the activist group of attempting to steer Mardi Gras in a more radical political direction.

The faction argues that Pride in Protest’s efforts to exclude LGBTQIA+ police, politicians and corporate sponsors from the parade risks “turning Mardi Gras from a celebration of inclusion into a space of division”.

Student ‘outed’

The 20-year-old university student, who lives with her parents, told Gay Sydney News she only learned of Peake’s apology after the USyd Queer Action Collective – which first raised alarm about the incident – informed her. She heard and watched the apology for the first time after GSN sent her a recording of it.

“I was not at the Protect Mardi Gras launch party, so I could not have heard this apology unless it were filmed and shared,” said the student, who did not wish to be named due to privacy concerns.

“As such, the apology felt to me only like an apology to Savanna’s voter base at the launch party, who were there supporting her regardless of whether she apologised or not.

“The attendees of the launch party did not need an apology. The video you sent me clearly demonstrates that she knows she’s not apologising to people who need her apology.”

The student previously told Star Observer she became anxious and scared after her family discovered the flyer promoting Peake’s candidacy.

As reported by Gay Sydney Daily, the envelope was plain except for her name, address and a return PO box. When she began opening it under her mother’s gaze, she saw the words “Protect Mardi Gras” and tore it up, but said her mother later reassembled the fragments and realised it related to queer issues.

“Given that my family is homophobic, and have been suspicious of my sexuality since I argue against their homophobic discourse, the letter … has proven to them that I am doing something ‘wrong’ by being queer and being involved in queer communities,” she told Star Observer.

She told GSN on Tuesday that “things have settled down with my family at the moment, and I’m not in any immediate physical danger”.

Privacy concerns

The student said she was aware Mardi Gras could contact members by mail but “was not aware that Protect Mardi Gras could legally be provided with my address”.

“I believe that the decision [by Protect Mardi Gras] to send physical mail was a *socially* ignorant one,” she said. “Protect Mardi Gras and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras have both neglected the various reasons why a person would not want to receive physical mail from them.”

She called for an opt-in mail system to prevent similar incidents.

Membership register under scrutiny

Under the Corporations Act 2001 and Mardi Gras’ constitution, board candidates can apply through the company secretary to access the register of members’ names and addresses for campaign purposes.

Mardi Gras said it was now seeking advice on whether it can let members opt out of receiving campaign materials while still complying with corporate law. It is also considering “adding clearer
explanations to the membership form about key clauses in the Constitution”.

The organisation said that when people join Mardi Gras, their membership carries formal rights and obligations under the organisation’s constitution, which sets out how members’ personal information can be used.

“It is important that when someone signs up to become a member of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, they take it upon themselves to fully understand what they are signing up to,” a spokesperson said.

As of Monday, Mardi Gras’ online sign-up form did not highlight that members’ contact details can be provided to board candidates for election-related mail-outs; instead, applicants must say that they agree to the organisation’s 24-page constitution, which is linked to and does contain this information.

Mardi Gras said it applies strict conditions on anyone granted access to the membership register. Applicants must provide a written explanation of how they intend to use it, sign a privacy declaration, and destroy the password-protected members’ register file once its approved use is complete.

The organisation said it had received only a small number of complaints about election mail-outs, mostly asking why they were sent.

Interim Mardi Gras CEO Jesse Matheson said the organisation “takes the privacy and safety of its members extremely seriously” and “expects all candidates to handle any information obtained through this process responsibly”.

“We regret if any member has experienced distress as a result of this issue,” he said.

USyd Queer Action Collective, which has membership crossover with Pride in Protest, was the first to highlight the incident, calling it an “abuse of [the] Mardi Gras members’ roll”.

It accused Protect Mardi Gras of mailing members “without notice or consent” and said “queer students have already been outed by family members picking up and reading their mail.”

The collective clarified to GSN that one student had been outed and said other students across universities had expressed fears of being outed.

USyd Queer Action Collective has long collaborated with Pride in Protest, most recently co-publishing a social media post promoting an article about Pride in Protest’s lead candidate in the current Mardi Gras board election, Luna Choo, and her role in “keeping Mardi Gras honest”. Choo is also an activist with the USyd Queer Action Collective.

On Friday, the USyd Queer Action Collective emailed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Protect Mardi Gras about its concerns with the mail-out and the outing incident, copying in queer media outlets to its email.

The group also raised objections to the Mardi Gras logo appearing on Protect Mardi Gras’ campaign materials and called for a ban on future election mail-outs using members’ personal information.

Protect Mardi Gras and Pride in Protest respond

Protect Mardi Gras co-founder Peter Stahel said it was “terrible that a young person is so unsafe in their own home they can’t even open their mail without suspicion and judgement”.

“I think that’s a reason to unite and make ourselves more visible, campaign harder and be strategic. Not attack each other and create black and white morality tests.”

Responding to the resurfacing of the 2018 campaign flyers, a Pride in Protest spokesperson said the group’s letters were mailed out in response to the one criticising it.

“A few days … [after that initial letter from the former Mardi Gras directors], Pride in Protest sent out a smaller number of letters, limited to the Sydney city area,” Pride in Protest said.

“After general complaints from members with privacy concerns, candidates across the political spectrum ceased to send out letters until this year.

“This whole [recent] debacle, initially met with a highly insensitive non-apology by Peter Stahel, shows that Protect Mardi Gras are very inexperienced campaigners…

“We would suggest that in future, Mardi Gras makes it clear to candidates that these kinds of mail-outs are discouraged.”

Editor’s note: Journalist Ben Grubb pays $50 annually for Mardi Gras membership to access discounts, including at retail stores and bars, but does not use the membership’s voting rights.