By Alison Bevege
SYDNEY, March 3 (Reuters) - About half a million people areexpected to line Sydney's streets on Saturday to celebrate the40th anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the firsttime the annual parade has taken place since Australia legalisedsame-sex marriage.
The event started in 1978 as a protest march for gay rightsand the decriminalisation of homosexuality but has since growninto a major tourist spectacle featuring leather, sequins,glitter, lasers and dance music. It is now Sydney's biggeststreet party and a major focal point for Australia's gay andlesbian community.
This year's procession includes 200 floats and groups ofstreet dancers and will be headed by Dykes on Bikes, amotorcycle club.
Pop superstar Cher will headline the parade's officialparty, the first since Australia in December became the 26thnation to legalise same-sex marriage. overwhelmingly endorsed legalising same-sexmarriage in a postal survey in a country where sodomy laws werestill in place in some states until as recently as the1990s. year's Mardi Gras will honour the 78ers, a group ofpeople involved in the original protest, which took place onJune 24, 1978 as a peaceful march for gay rights that sparkedthe annual parade.
That protest was marred by police brutality with 53 peoplearrested in subsequent scuffles.
Police have since apologised for the events of 1978 and nowmarch each year in the parade alongside other emergencyservices.
Bruce Pollack, a Mardi Gras volunteer since 1984, said theparade has played a major role in changing attitudes toward theLGBT community over the decades.
"I was involved in the gay and lesbian counseling service... you would always hear young gays, and older gays, and mucholder gays say 'it's OK to come out because I saw people like mein the parade enjoying themselves - and there were spectators',"Pollack told Reuters. "It was Mardi Gras that made it OK to begay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender."