NSW Gov’t issue apology to 78ers. At last.

By Heaps Gay Staff

The NSW Government has today issued an official apology to the 78ers.

In case you’re wondering, in 1978 a crowd of 500 people marched from Taylor Square towards Hyde Park to protest the mistreatment of LGBTQI Australians and demand the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Despite being entirely peaceful, the NSW police launched a crackdown on the march, eventually arresting 53 people.

The nest day, the Sydney Morning Herald printed the names, occupations and addresses of the 53 arrested, essentially outing them to their employers and families.

Of course, the march was the dark beginning of what is now considered to be Gay Christmas – the Mardi Gras. Since the 1978 protest, the annual march has become NSW’s second largest tourist event and an excuse to get completely mashed and dance until you drop.

Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your point of view. Some think we’ve lost sight of what the original 1978 protest was all about.

But I digress. The NSW Government has now apologised to those arrested wrongfully in ’78, in front of a group of the original 78ers. The motion acknowledged that the peaceful, legal demonstration was wrongfully broken up by police, and also recognises the “harm and distress” the events of 1978 had on those who were arrested.

The apology was delivered by Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith, an openly gay member of the NSW Parliament.