Sydney Mardi Gras: Last News

By Josh PallasPride Month has become a celebration for the queer community. But it should always be deeply enmeshed with the ongoing struggle for queer liberation.

Adam Lambert is getting Pride Month started a couple weeks early!

Outgoing Sunrise executive producer, Michael Pell got engaged at his going away party, Saturday afternoon. Pell’s boyfriend, Daniel Burgess-Wise, in a room full of their friends, family, and colleagues asked Pell to marry him.Burgess-Wise, 29, voice shaking asked Pell, “Will you marry me?Pell, 36, holding back tears, replied, “’Yes!”The pair hugged each other as their guest cheered. The couple met in 2018 after Burgess-Wise started working on Sunrise. They started dating in 2020.Pell has been promoted to a new role and is moving to Los Angeles to be Senior Vice President, Entertainment Content, North America.There Pell will scout out new potential shows and formats for the Seven Network.  A post shared by Michael Pell (@michaeljpell)Pell has been the executive producer at Sunrise since 2010 when at the age of 26 was he was one of the youngest producers at the network. Prior to that, Pell  was a producer in the network’s news department.  A post shared by Michael Pell (@michaeljpell)In response to the news of the promotion, Sunrise’s David Koch wished Pell well saying, “Michael has been a major force behind Sunrise’s continued success over many years.

Despite notching up a perfect score of 40 from the judges, Courtney Act and her dance partner Joshua Keefe failed to take home the Mirrorball Trophy in Sunday night’s grand finale of Dancing With The Stars: All Stars.  The pair were in line to become the first ever same-sex dance team to win any of the franchises of the show, but instead had to be happy with once again taking the runner-up position.Courtney (whose non-drag name is Shane Jenek) and Joshua danced a freestyle routine to Harry Styles’ Treat People with Kindness. Courtney admitted “It’s going to be tough to top our last grand final dance” and following their performance, told the judging panel that, “We wanted to bring a little Mardi Gras to the ballroom floor.”In the pre-performance clip, Courtney said, “I think what we will do differently in this dance is really focus on the technique and the dancing.”Joshua described the routine saying, “We’ve got lifts, we’ve got tricks, we’ve got about five different dance styles in there.

A rainbow pathway in Newtown may be just around the corner, after a motion to begin plans for a new pathway in time for next year’s Sydney WorldPride event was carried unanimously by Inner West Council last week.The motion, which was moved by Independent Pauline Lockie and seconded by the Greens Liz Atkins, noted that installing a rainbow crossing in Newtown would be “a visible sign of pride and support for our LGBTQ community”.“Symbols representing our community make it clear that queer people are welcome in our community and, are in fact, to be celebrated,” Cr Atkins told Star Observer when asked about the significance of installing the new rainbow pathway.Cr Pauline LockThis follows a previously resolved motion by council in December 2019, where prospects for a rainbow crossing at the intersection of King Street and Enmore Road in Newtown were being investigated.Although the motion was then approved by councillors, an installation required the approval of Transport for NSW, who “advised Council that it would not support a rainbow crossing in this location and is also unlikely to approve other locations for on-road rainbow crossings”.“That’s quite a complicated intersection anyway, there are multiple sets of lights; multiple crossing points; emergency access points; a train station there”, Cr Lockie told City Hub.Alternative options suggested in the motion included lighting one of the pathways in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park with rainbow lights, painting one of the existing pathways in the park in rainbow colours, and painting a rainbow pathway outside Newtown Town Hall.Two amendments were moved by Cr Mat Howard, who called on council to “submit a request to the Geographical Names Board to rename the public square

By Kyle Olsen and Troy MurphyThis Saturday, the members of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will vote on a number of motions relating to the behaviour of activist group Pride In Protest. You can view Motions 1-5 here. We have designed these to hold Pride In Protest accountable for the damage their behaviour has caused Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, its staff, board, volunteers and Parade participants.For the past week, the Star Observer has published articles in relation to these motions.

Australian drag star Courtney Act is to bring her latest show, titled Fluid, to the UK and Ireland.