The LGBT community of Sydney, in New South Wales, is the largest in Australia and has a firm place as one of the iconic gay cities of the contemporary world. In a 2013 Pew Research poll, 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth most supportive country in the survey behind Spain (88%), Germany (87%), Canada and the Czech Republic (both 80%). With a long history of LGBT rights activism and the annual three-week-long Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney is one of the most gay-friendly cities in Australia and in the world.[1]
History
Since the colonisation of Australia in 1788 with the landing of the
capital crime, resulting in the execution of people convicted of sodomy until 1890. The laws also punished sodomy between heterosexual partners, but did not apply to lesbian relationships. Oral sex as well as masturbation, whether heterosexual or homosexual, public or private, were also criminal offences.[2]
Governor Phillip made it clear to the early convicts that
There are two crimes that would merit death – murder and sodomy. For either of these crimes I would wish to confine the criminal till an opportunity offered of delivering him as a prisoner to the natives of New Zealand, and let them eat him.
While Britain's influence on Australian political culture was still strong in the fifties there was no local appetite for a political response to the
Wolfenden Committee
, which recommended the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in Britain in 1957. Ten years later there was little comment from any Australian public figure (state or federal) when Britain finally de-criminalized homosexuality in England and Wales. Some historians have attributed this to the association of homosexuality with the 'convict stain'
in October 1973, former Prime Minister John Gorton put forward a motion in the federal House of Representatives that "in the opinion of this House homosexual acts between consenting adults in private should not be subject to the criminal law". All three major parties were given a conscience vote, and the motion was passed by 64 votes to 40.[5]
Gay Neighbourhoods
During the Vietnam War, the Darlinghurst Road precinct, known as Kings Cross, became a popular destination for US military personnel on R&R – due chiefly to its proximity to a major naval facility. Partially as a result of this, the area gained a reputation as Australia's drugs and prostitution capital and also as one of the very early gay areas. Dozens of hotels constructed at the time ensured that "The Cross" remained a gay ghetto well into the 1990s.
In the years following the World War II, gay men started congregating in bars in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst and by 1969 gay bars such as Ivy's Birdcage and Capriccio's had opened. Queer life developed along the Oxford Street strip, which became known as The Golden Mile.
Demographics
In 2014, over half a million people, or 3.0% of the adult Australian population, identified as gay, lesbian or "other". This included 268,000 people who identified as gay or lesbian and 255,000 people who identified as having an "other" sexual orientation. While New South Wales had just under a third of Australia's population, from the 2011 census, the state had 41% of Australia's male same-sex couples with the top ten suburbs for gay couples all in inner Sydney, including
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival in Sydney,[7] is attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest such festivals in the world,[8] Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania.[a] It includes a variety of events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and Party, Bondi Beach Drag Races, Harbour Party, the academic discussion panel Queer Thinking, Mardi Gras Film Festival, as well as Fair Day, which attracts 70,000 people to Victoria Park, Sydney
.
The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is one of Australia's biggest tourist drawcards,[21] with the parade and dance party attracting many international and domestic tourists. It is New South Wales' second-largest annual event in terms of economic impact,[22] generating an annual income of about A$30 million for the state.
Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo, is South America’s largest, and is listed by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest Pride parade starting in 2006 with 2.5 million people.[13] They broke the Guinness record in 2009 with four million attendees.[14] They have kept the title from 2006 to at least 2016.[15] They had five million attend in 2017.[16][17] As of 2019 it has three to five million each year.[18]
As of June 2019,
Orgullo Gay de Madrid (MADO), is Europe’s biggest, it had 3.5 million attendees when it hosted WorldPride in 2017.[17]
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LGBT culture worldwide
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