“Queer people and our movements for liberation have a long and complex relationship with organised religion. Religion sits on both sides of our history – it has been a source of real harm and, for others, of genuine sanctuary. Satire and humour have been one of the ways our community survived that history and turned it towards liberation,” Protect Mardi Gras co-founder Peter Stahel said.
“From the papier-mâché heads of Fred Nile to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a playful, cheeky and sometimes confronting engagement with organised religion has been at the heart of queer culture and queer politics for generations. That is not about to end. One of my favourites from Mardi Gras was a large replica of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, dubbed “St. Muscle Mary’s”.
“People of faith have every right to preach, protest and pray. That is their freedom and we defend it. What nobody has is the right to shut down queer art because it offends them. Being offended is not grounds for censorship, and it is certainly not grounds for eviction.
“Anyone who thinks queer performers should be punished for making fun of religion has missed the entire point. Satire and art is not an attack on people of faith – it is how a community that was told for centuries it was sinful, criminal and sick learned to answer back. Take the satire out of queer culture and you take out its heartbeat,” Mr Stahel said.
“The eviction threat should be understood in a global context, with queer venues, festivals and Pride events under organised pressure around the world.
“From Washington to Westminster, the strategy is the same: make queer life smaller, quieter and easier to ignore. Closing a Sydney arts venue because its cabaret was irreverent is what that rollback looks like at street level. Sydney should want no part of it,” Mr Stahel said.
Protect Mardi Gras said the episode showed exactly why it has called for Mardi Gras to reclaim its satirical, subversive and sexy spirit in the lead-up to its 50th anniversary in 2028.
“Mardi Gras was born in 1978 as a defiant street celebration the authorities tried to shut down, and it grew into one of the nation’s most important institutions for culture, community and activism precisely because it never asked permission to be provocative. Our community’s job now is to back the artists and venues carrying that tradition – not to sand the edges off it,” Mr Stahel said.
“Divine Playhouse is doing what queer spaces have always done: giving artists a home to be loud, irreverent, joyful and entirely themselves. It deserves the whole community standing beside it.”