Before Mardi Gras
Lesbian and Gay Activism in Australia, 1969-1978
Graham Willett
Before Mardi Gras – long before Mardi Gras – LGBTIQ+ people in Australia were standing up and speaking out for freedom, equality, liberation.
Starting in 1969, with demos and street theatre, zaps and lobbying, leaflets and newspapers and radio programs, LGBTQI+ people and their friends argued that it was not us that was the problem, but society. Laws and regulations, professional attitudes and public opinion had to change.
Before Mardi Gras is the history of that first, too-often forgotten, decade. A decade that made everything that followed possible.
“ This groundbreaking book was the first to chronicle the challenges, victories and profound impact of Australia’s gay and lesbian movement. With compelling prose, Graham Willett shows how an extraordinary social transformation was achieved and those at the heart of change. This timely reissue, focused on foundational decades, keeps hope alive and is essential reading for all those who wish to understand social change and how minorities can win.”
“Graham Willett is one of the pioneers of queer history in Australia, and I welcome the reissue of his pioneering book, all the more relevant as we can now look back on half a century of extraordinary change. Before Mardi Gras is an important case study of how a movement emerges and is able to change the parameters of social and political life.”