Heading home this afternoon, I faced a dilemma. With a fifteen minute wait for the bus I was planning to catch, I couldn’t decide whether to stop in to a nearby pub for a quick beer, or wait in line. In the end, my choice was made for me, as I saw a group of people walking up Oxford Street, Sydney, headed towards Taylor Square.

They were re-enacting the first-ever Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras protest march and parade. Though the parade is now held in late summer (they changed it because Sydney in winter is always a bit cold and a bit wet), forty years ago, Mardi Gras was held in the middle of winter, coinciding with the anniversary of the Stonewall riot.

It was a terrific case of being at the right place at the right time.