Last year Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras embarked on a discussion with our community about our name, seeking views from our membership and wider LGBTQI communities about our name’s history, inclusivity and the value of a possible name change.

Our friends at Newgate Australia will help us with additional consultation at Mardi Gras Fair Day this Sunday 16 February in Victoria Park. It will be an opportunity to share your views and ideas about the name of our organisation. It’s the next step in a consultation process that we’re looking forward to telling you much more about as 2020 progresses.

The inclusivity of the name of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras comes up as a topic of discussion regularly, as we work collaboratively with organisations representing many different sexualities and gender diverse groups. You can read a discussion paper about the inclusivity of our name here.

Several other organisations, including the Gay and Lesbian Archives, are now consulting their own memberships for their views on a potential change to their name.

We’re very grateful to have heard a range of thoughts and many ideas so far. Hundreds of people connected with Mardi Gras have emailed us with their views, and we’ve gathered feedback from a range of LGBTQI community groups and members of our community in focus groups.

We know that so many of you feel passionately about Mardi Gras and what its name means. We are also seeing and hearing thoughtful opinions as the conversation develops in our communities. Above all, we understand we must conduct a clear, strong and transparent engagement process.

As always, we welcome your feedback on email at membership@mardigrasarts.org.au. All feedback is being heard and all options are being considered.

Thank you,
The team at Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras