Perth Voice Interactive

PRIDE WA organisers have been peppered with multiple censorship accusations after several marchers were ordered not to display politically-charged signs. 

The Order of Perpetual Indulgence was a prominent no-show this year: The satirical sisters have been an enduring mainstay of Pride events but Mother Gretta (aka Neil Buckley) tells us their proposed theme satirising Donald Trump was “banned” by the Pride board.

The order of activist nuns had planned a float criticising the transphobia of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement: “We had six-foot blow up penises and we were going to put a whole heap of Trump flags on them, and we were going to write ‘MAGA’ down the front of them,” Mr Buckley says.

The plan had been to frame transphobes as “dickheads” who were pre-occupied with penises, with Mr Buckley citing the current Republican-led campaign to ban transgender people from the restrooms matching their gender identity. 

But Mr Buckley reported on the eve of the event that “the Pride board asked that we not march with our ‘MAGA and transphobia dickheads’ float”.

He says they didn’t get a solid answer out of Pride organisers as to why their theme was rejected, but the board asked them to run with a different theme. Instead the Sisters pulled out.

“The censorship really has been a bit much,” Mr Buckley says, noting a shift towards a less outrageous, more corporate event. 

“It really has changed… there’s no political satire any more in the parade. It’s a nice parade, but it’s very boring.”

The Sisters have often marched with provocative signs, and there’d been no issue with giant inflatable penises in a previous Pride outing.

“That’s what it used to be about. People could make those statements, and now they seem really worried.”

“We’ve always gone in with a political message, and this was really about transphobia.” 

Mr Buckley says locally some people are fearing that ramifications of Trump’s election will be felt here, and it’s a prime time to stand up for their rights. 

Transphobic

“To say that doesn’t affect us here is just rubbish, because it gives permission for people here to be transphobic.”

Other political messages also faced censorship at the November 23 parade: WA Labor’s Perth MP John Carey penned a furious social media statement the next day saying “Pride WA censored the WA Labor/Rainbow Labor… instructing us to remove signage which criticised the WA Liberals on their anti LGBTQAI+ commitments and for closing a women’s shelter.”

The latter referred to ending funding of the Safe Night Space by Perth council, headed by lord mayor Basil Zempilas who is also the Liberal candidate for Churchlands at the next state election.

Mr Carey said: “Pride marches are built on a history of political activism and protest, freedom of expression and advancing the rights of LGBTQAI+ community”.

But he said at this march “police were approached and informed by Pride WA that WA Labor was breaching the agreed conditions of the march participation, despite no rules prescribing any limit on political messaging to enter the parade.

“I have a great working relationship and respect Perth Police – they were just doing their job by asking us to remove the signage and were highly professional and good to deal with. 

“The real reason behind the censorship became clear when a Pride WA leader told a member of WA Labor they feared losing City of Perth funding.

“Only last week Pride WA also sought to remove the same signage because of complaints by members of the Liberal party: later  confirmed by a Pride WA board member that those were also complaints from the City of Perth.”

Local LGBTQIA+ news outlet Out in Perth also reported on a video showing another group of marchers being ordered by police not to display a sign reading “Fuck! Cops BHP Rio Tinto Fuck! Corporate Pride”, a sharp critique of the presence of police and corporations marching in a parade that was once a protest. 

According to Out in Perth’s report, the group was then told by police they have the power to call for signs to be removed if they believe it will cause a disturbance, and that they can issue ‘move on’ notices if people refuse to comply. 

We put a series of questions to Pride WA about the censorship claims but did not hear back before deadline. However in answers to Out in Perth Pride brass said: “Some of our volunteers were made to feel unsafe at the Parade and this is deeply concerning. This warrants further consideration at the appropriate time.”

The Voice has asked for clarification on what made the volunteers feel unsafe, and how that description gels with Mr Carey’s account that other censorship attempts had been communicated a week ahead of the parade.

by DAVID BELL