In putting together this digital issue — PEDESTRIAN.TV’s first ever — there’s one word that came up time and time again: community.
Our issue, launched today to coincide with the start of Mardi Gras, celebrates the LGBQT+ culture makers and game changers. It’s a love letter to Sydney’s queer scene, which will be loud, proud and highly visible for the two weeks of Mardi Gras, kicking off February 14.
Beyond those two weeks, though, are the men, women, non-binary babes and heroes across the gender spectrum, working tirelessly to create the community all year round.
Our cover features five of them: creator and DJ Kath Ebbs, House of Silky’s Father Xander Khoury, First Nations drag queen Felicia Foxx, Heaps Gay founder Kat Dopper, and fashion designer Alix Higgins.
“When I’m in community, I’ve got that safe space that means I can deal with the outside world,” Kath said of their journey to live publicly as a non-binary person.
For Kat Dopper, it was finding community in London that inspired them to create Heaps Gay in Sydney. “Queer spaces are essential for creating spaces for us to come together, feel free, express who we want to be and find a chosen family,” she said.
Community is at the core of ballroom, and for Xander Khoury, a.k.a. House of Silky’s Father, creating a house that centred fashion and chosen family was essential. “The way I’ve always envisioned it is that we always need to centre our trans women and our Black and brown people first,” they said.
Felicia Foxx, a proud Kamilaroi and Dhunghutti “brotherboy, sistergirl, brista — brothersister”, never saw themselves represented when they started drag at age 16. Now at 24, watching the Aboriginal queer scene grow brings nothing but joy.
And for Alix Higgins — a.k.a. your favourite fashion designer’s fashion designer — his connection to the queer scene is symbiotic. His friends are also his muses, and his designs are worn at queer parties all across the city.
It’s been more than four decades since the 78ers marched in the original Mardi Gras, fighting for their right to live and love freely. In the decades since, we’ve passed marriage equality, legalised same-sex adoption, removed horrific legislation like the gay panic defense. And yet, we’re seeing hard-won LGBTQ+ rights being stripped back overseas. Depressingly, progress is perhaps not as linear as we once thought.
So this Mardi Gras, let’s celebrate this vibrant, loving, fabulous and utterly fucking beautiful community — and tell the world we’re not going anywhere.
Read more from this issue:
- Kath Ebbs on Non-Binary Joy, the Pink Dollar, and Falling in Love Over Line Dancing
- House Of Silky’s Father Xander Khoury on Ballroom’s Past, Present & Shining Future
- Felicia Foxx on Queer Blackfella Excellence & Change Through ‘Artivism’
- Alix Higgins on Friends As Muses & Twisting Masculinity In Fashion
- Heaps Gay’s Kat Dopper on Community, Chosen Family & Creating The Ultimate Vibe
The post Our First Ever Digital Issue Celebrates The LGBTQ+ Culture Makers & Game Changers appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
