Rogue senator Lidia Thorpe made a bizarre Mardi Gras protest in which she threw herself under the wrong truck. Instead of obstructing the Australian Federal Police or NSW police float as she planned, Thorpe laid down in the path of the QLife truck representing the LGBTIQ community’s anonymous hotline and the Twenty10 youth charity.
She pulled the same stunt, which brought the parade to a standstill, twice before being unceremoniously booted from the event.
New photos, video footage and descriptions of Thorpe’s attention-seeking clash have emerged since she was ousted from the parade on Saturday night for breaching safety and participation guidelines.
Under the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2023 Code of Conduct, ‘threatening or aggressive behaviour, both verbally and physically’ is not permitted, and participants must obey instructions of SGLMG staff, security, volunteers, NSW Police, and emergency services.
A timeline of Lidia Thorpe’s actions on Saturday reveals she delivered a firebrand speech to fellow members of the Pride in Protest group’s No Pride in Genocide float sometime before the parade began at 8 pm.
The event’s 12,500 marchers and 200-plus floats then began moving, with the federal and state police entering the procession around 9 pm.
Thorpe crashes into the police part of the parade, holding her arms crossed above her head and yelling ‘f*** the police’.
When the police kept moving, she escalated her protest and lay down on her back directly in front of a truck next in the queue.
As the crowd began to boo Thorpe, two police officers tried to get her up and move her on, as she pointed at an officer and gesticulated to him to back off.
Another officer tried to get her to move on from the front of the float which belonged to QLife, and sported a large lit-up sign on its back promoting the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service NSW’s helpline and celebrating 50 years of GLCS NSW/Phone-a-Friend.
QLife operates Twenty10, which provides housing, counselling, and mental health support for young gay people in Sydney. It merged with GCLS in 2012 to offer free programs and safe spaces to ‘people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or gender diverse, intersex, queer, asexual or those who are questioning their identity’.
On Sunday, Thorpe said she was ‘proud’ of her protest at the Mardi Gras. Footage of her protest circulated social media on Sunday morning, with her antics drawing plenty of criticism.
It’s not the first time Senator Thorpe has publicly confronted police. In May, while she was still a member of the Green party, she told a police officer ‘you’re a disgrace’ during a demonstration at Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, where activists protested against the transportation of 12 detainees to Christmas Island detention centre.
Ms Thorpe has become known for high-profile activism in her four years in Victorian and federal politics, especially on immigration, social justice, and environmental issues.
»Senator Lidia Thorpe makes bizarre Mardi Gras protest«
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