{"id":509283,"date":"2026-02-28T08:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509283\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T08:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:03:08","slug":"activist-group-pride-in-protest-banned-from-mardi-gras-parade-over-social-media-posts-sydney-gay-and-lesbian-mardi-gras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509283\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist group Pride in Protest banned from Mardi Gras parade over social media posts | Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Activist group Pride in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/protest\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Protest<\/a> has been banned from marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras parade over social media posts criticising Jewish group Dayenu, who were also due to take part in the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Mardi Gras chief executive, Jesse Matheson, wrote to Pride in Protest on Friday, saying the organisation had received complaints about social media posts that described Dayenu, a group for Sydney\u2019s Jewish LGBTQ+ community and their allies, as \u201cpro-genocide\u201d and alleged that Dayenu \u201csupport genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Matheson wrote that the posts, which remained online as of Saturday afternoon, raised \u201cserious concerns\u201d about compliance with parade rules, \u201cand with the values that underpin our parade\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed&amp;CMP=emailbutton\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Pride in Protest said it was expelled from the parade after it failed to respond within the six-hours it was given to reply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The group said the decision was an overreach and called for it to be reversed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cPride in Protest refuses to comply with this authoritarian censorship that silences speaking out about genocide,\u201d Pride in Protest\u2019s Evan Gray said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The NSW Greens upper house MP Amanda Cohn said it was \u201can extraordinary act of censorship to exclude Pride in Protest from the Sydney Mardi Gras parade\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cEspecially when the organisers are happy to include the Liberal Party, who have called for the parade\u2019s funding to be reviewed and continue to vote against LGBTQIA+ rights in parliament,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Matheson confirmed in a statement that Pride in Protest had been removed from Saturday\u2019s Mardi Gras after a written warning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cParticipation in the parade is conditional on compliance with our terms and conditions, including the code of conduct provisions that prohibit harassment, bullying, vilification or discriminatory conduct toward other Parade participants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cPride in Protest were asked to remove unacceptable public commentary levelled against another small community group marching in the parade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cTheir float marshal were also asked to confirm they had read and understood the parade terms &amp; conditions before marching in the parade. Neither [of the] actions were undertaken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Matheson added that Pride in Protest had marched \u201cfor many years under the banner of \u2018No Pride In Genocide\u2019 and Mardi Gras provided that space\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis is about conduct including harassment of other participants and refusal to comply [with] or acknowledge agreed terms and conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A spokesperson for Dayenu said the group was \u201cdeeply offended and hurt by statements and social media posts by Pride in Protest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDayenu is not a Zionist organisation, and we feel that word is being used to insult our Jewish community, in place of the word Jew,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe Mardi Gras has become a safer and more inclusive space for the LGBT+ community, now that Mardi Gras is enforcing basic decency in how it expects members to treat each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">They added the group was \u201cwilling to meet with Pride in Protest to find common ground and build a respectful and informed relationship of each other\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Activist group Pride in Protest has been banned from marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras parade over social&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-509283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}