Box Turtle Bulletin

Today In History, 1978: Sydney Police Block Pride Parade, 53 Arrested and Beaten

The first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras march

This was supposed to be Sydney’s first Gay Pride Parade, known locally as Mardi Gras, and was planned as a night-time celebration after a morning march and commemoration of the Stonewall riots. (You can see film of the morning march taken with a super-8 camera here.) While homosexuality was still against the law in New South Wales, organizers had obtained all the necessary permits for the celebration beforehand. The evening celebration began simply, with a small crowd walking down Oxford Street on a chilly Australian winter day. The idea was to encourage people to come out from the bars and join the fun. But the crowd aroused suspicions of the police, which had gathered around the group.

Sydney police arresting Mardi Gras marchers.

By the time the small crowd, estimated at between five hundred and a thousand, reached the end of the street, the police confiscated the sound system, removed their identification badges and turned on the crowd. One participant recalled, “There was, you know, pretty serious bashing and kicking and all sort of things going on. It was a real riot.” Sandi Banks also remembered the brutality that night:

“They came racing down Darlinghurst Road, sirens going, lights galore and they jumped out, lots of them,” Ms Banks said. “Very huge men at the time and no form of identification. And they started grabbing, thumping, bashing, pulling hair. They picked me up and threw me towards the paddy wagon … my chest was black and blue from having hit the truck. And my arms both had huge marks [from] manhandling by the police there, so it was quite incredible.”

Fifty-three marchers were arrested. Peter Murphy, 25, recalled that while in police custody, he was beaten so badly he began to convulse on the floor.

“They took me along a long corridor in the police station through a U-shaped route into a room and then just beat the hell out of me. There were two police officers who did that – one in particular – bashing me with their fists in the head and saying ‘you’re not so smart now are you’.” Mr Murphy said he was beaten solidly until a blow to the solar plexus floored him. He was thrown into a solitary cell where he could hear protesters gathered outside chanting his name. “They tried to break my leg but fortunately the bones didn’t snap,” he said. “I was (literally) pissing my pants.”

A large crowd formed outside the Darlinghurst police station, singing “We Shall Overcome” and chanting slogans. Some of those inside could hear the crowd, giving them some measure of comfort.

The following Monday, gay community leaders tried to go to the court building, only to find police blocking the entrances and preventing the public from witnessing the trials. The order to close the court house to the pubic came from Police Superintendent Reginald Douglas.

Inside the courtroom, defense attorneys applied to have the general public admitted, but the Chief Magistrate insisted that no order to close the courts had been issued and that he had issued an order to the police to admit the public. But police ignored the order, and insisted that the magistrates instead provide lists of specific people needed in court. One newspaper caught the dialog: Defense attorney John Terry asked, “What criterion are you using to exclude these people?” Douglas responded that he didn’t have to answer. “You’re acting arbitrarily,” replied Terry. “That’s right, arbitrarily,” said Douglas.

“It was a wild day on the Monday as well as on the Saturday night,” said writer David Marr. “The coppers hated the poofs, they hated them. And they hated the lesbians perhaps even more than that.”

Although most of the charges were dropped, the Sydney Morning Herald published the full names of everyone who was arrested, outing many to their family, friends and employers. Many lost their jobs.

Known as the 78ers, the fifty-three who were arrested and beaten spent the next 38 years demanding an apology from the New South Wales government and Sydney Police. Those apologies finally came this year. On February 25, Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith delivered the Government’s apology:

We recognise that you were ill-treated, you were mistreated, you were embarrassed and shamed, and it was wrong. I hope it’s not too late that you can accept an apology but also we want to recognise that for all of that pain that you went through, you brought about fundamental change in this society and fundamental change for the many gay and lesbian people like myself, who can be open and relaxed about ourselves. You were the game changers.

…For the mistreatment you suffered that evening, as a member of this Parliament, who oversaw the events of that night, I apologise, and I say sorry. As a member of a parliament that dragged its feet on the decriminalisation of homosexual acts I apologise.

One week later, an official of the Sydney Police delivered its apology:

“I have [Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione’s] full support in saying that the NSW Police Force is sorry,” Superintendent Tony Crandell from the Surry Hills Local Area Command said.

“Sorry for the way that the Mardi Gras was policed on the first occasion in 1978.”