How the histories of Mardi Gras and gay tourism in Australia are intertwined.

Within a little more than a decade following the 1978 riot, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival and Parade nourished the emergence of a budding gay and lesbian tourism industry. CrowdSpark.com/AAP

Today, Mardi Gras is framed, at least in part, within a global gay and lesbian tourism industry that craves a bigger and better parade each year. It’s unlikely that any of the heroic individuals caught up in the brutal riot on the night of 24 June, 1978 would have had much of an inkling that Mardi Gras would become one of the world’s most spectacular and enduring gay pride parades.