On Saturday, Sydney's famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras marks its 40th anniversary - and its first celebration since Australia legalised same-sex marriage. Much has changed since violence marred the first parade, writes Sharon Verghis in Sydney.
As a chilly winter's evening ticked towards midnight, Kate Rowe was in high spirits. She was following a truck trundling down Sydney's Oxford St, its speakers belting out a tinny version of Tom Robinson's call-to-arms anthem Glad to be Gay.
It was 22.30 on 24 June 1978.
For Ms Rowe, a 27-year-old English immigrant who had spent a lifetime grappling with her sexuality and was newly sober after years of substance abuse, it had been a good day, a clear moment in time when everything in her life seemed aligned.
She was marching with her friends, fellow gay and lesbian activists, part of band of few hundred marchers gathered for Sydney's first ever Mardi Gras.
It was the harbour's city contribution to Gay Solidarity Day, a series of celebrations that sprang up around the world after the Stonewall riots, sparked by a violent police raid on a New York gay bar in 1969.
source: www.bbc.com
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