Cops and corporations are bankrupting us – financially and morally

Guest opinion: Pride in Protest is fighting for social justice in the queer community and beyond, meaning we want to see an end to police violence, the cutting of Mardi Gras’ ties with companies linked to genocide, and full equality for sex workers, trans youth, everyone – without exceptions.

Right now, pro-establishment voices are campaigning to protect the status quo in Mardi Gras: marching with armed police, and partying with sponsors that arm genocide.

But without social change, the status quo is an unfolding crisis. The NSW Police threaten the viability of music festivals by charging excessive fees for their presence. For-profit corporations like the genocide-backing KKR-owned Fuzzy then take over those same events.

‘No police at pride’

Pride in Protest commits to remembering victims of the NSW Police while resisting their erasure. But right now, pro-establishment voices are pushing for the inclusion of the same police force in our celebration and protest. They work to shift attention away from police violence while cops project a progressive, LGBTQ-friendly image.

Within queer party spaces, circuit gays and trans partygoers are not safe from police conduct described as “akin to sexual assaults“. In NSW, cops routinely subject partygoers to violating and often illegal strip-searches, justified by drug sniffer dogs that get it wrong 75 per cent of the time.

NSW Police uses its discretion in weaponising strip-searches and raids to perpetrate their “War on Drugs” against queers, Blak people, and other communities at events like Mardi Gras. Three days after the 2005 Mardi Gras parade, NSW Police raided the apartment of 34-year-old Aboriginal trans woman Veronica Baxter, who was denied hormone therapy and died in custody, as part of the same War on Drugs. Veronica is one of at least 611 Blak deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

NSW Police then foists the costs of harassing queers onto Mardi Gras through “user-pays” policing. As part of “Operation Mardi Gras”, police charged Mardi Gras $551,345 for policing the 2023 festival with weapons and sniffer dogs. This protection racket contributed to the $1.24 million deficit Mardi Gras reported last year.

Queer protesters and our allies, too, face transphobic discrimination and physical bashings from police. At queer rights protests and pro-Palestine rallies, NSW Police call gender-diverse people homophobic slurs and misgender them in custody.

At the 2013 Mardi Gras parade, the same police force that tortured participants in 1978 violently attacked queer men Bryn Hutchinson and Jamie Jackson Reed, and traumatised parade-goers. Recently, the police assault of Greens candidate Hannah Thomas and pro-Palestine protesters exposed the pervasive violence entrenched within the NSW Police.

Queer communities and our allies are at risk of, first, the brutality of the NSW Police and, second, the erasure of their dangerous conduct. NSW Police and their supporters pressure us to include them because they know marching is a pinkwashing tool that encourages the public to focus on their “reconciliation” efforts and forget about the violence they commit. Victims of police brutality still exist, and justice for them cannot co-exist with pro-cop propaganda.

‘No pride in genocide’

Queer Palestinians matter. Right now, their existence is threatened by both the Palestinian genocide and the erasure of this extreme violence in the West.

Following last year’s financial deficit, Mardi Gras lost its licence to host the Bondi Beach Party to Fuzzy and was reportedly seeking to partner with Fuzzy to co-produce “signature” events. Fuzzy is presenting Mighty Hoopla Sydney and other festivals, and is majority-owned by investment company KKR.

KKR invests in Israeli tech firms and defence contractors, making them financially complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. During this year’s Pride Month, Israel has killed more than 100 trans inmates in Iran.

Besides complicity in the Palestinian catastrophe, KKR’s leadership features well-known figures from US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party. As part of the anti-LGBTQIA+ movement in the United States, “MAGA” is waging a full-on war against transgender people, with more than 2000 anti-trans bills across the country.

Pride in Protest advocates that Mardi Gras oppose genocide. But pro-establishment voices reject attempts to exclude any business partner from our festival and pride. The call for a Mardi Gras inclusive of all sponsors means shamelessly running cover for any partner, which reportedly included genocide-backing KKR-owned Fuzzy.

‘We’re here, we’re queer’: Our vision for Mardi Gras

The NSW Police and unethical sponsors see us not as communities they stand alongside, but as a group of people to exploit, pacify, and silence. To let them continue comes at an immense moral and financial cost (the half a million paid out to police seems to receive little protest from the “fiscally responsible” board members).

To stand up for a Mardi Gras that empowers queer communities, Pride in Protest is fighting back against cops and bad actors. If you feel that our principles resonate with yours, we encourage you to sign up as a Mardi Gras member and vote with us at its upcoming annual general meeting.

You can also join us in the streets for Trans Day of Resistance on November 23 at Newtown’s Pride Square from 2pm to demand no pride in genocide and cops out of pride.