At least six actors were paid hundreds of dollars each to 'act gay' at 2008's Sydney's Mardi Gras Parade, leading Aussie gay pundits to wonder "whose Mardi Gras is this, anyway?" The actors, who danced on a float promoting furniture company IKEA, "were not required to be gay or lesbian, or have any community affiliations," reports online magazine The Scavenger. Candidates for the job were required to have "a sense of fun", the "ability to act like you have water in a hot tub when you don't" and the "ability to be adored." A Mardi Gras spokesperson was not surprised by the Scavenger report: "It would be unusual for a corporate entry, such as IKEA, to rely on volunteers to show up when they put so much money into the event." The report comes just days after controversy surrounded the exclusion of a predominantly LGBT-organised animal rights float, which Parade organisers said was "not queer enough". Responding to the revelations, a respected gay activist and original 1978 parader Gary Burns said the event had lost its way. "The people running Mardi Gras … don't seem to know what it is or who it's for. They should resign." The Mardi Gras situation echoes a concerns regarding one of Auckland's last Hero parades when an energy drink sponsor's float was populated with straight dancer/models who dressed in homo- and lesbo-chic outfits but could not resist gyrating together in heterosexual rather than homosexual couplings.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Saturday, 20th February 2010 - 8:37pm