Sydney Pride Launch

Sydney Pride Month Launch

Stonewall Hotel

Official launch

Host: Verushka Darling

Lord Major Clover Moore

Guest Speakers.

Skye Paez (she/her) is a writer, actor, and guest speaker

Steve Spencer (He/Him/His) Vice President - National Association of People with HIV Australia and Ambassador - The Bobby Goldsmith Foundation

Glenn Hansen (He/Him) Sydney Pride Festival coordinator and Promotions and Marketing Manager Stonewall hotel

Guest Performers.

Charlamaine Sydney Drag Performer

Izzy Hanly Sydney based, theatre and cabaret performer

29th May

Time: 7pm

Pride Picnic

Celebrate Pride with a vibrant community picnic, live entertainment and powerful projections sharing local queer stories at Ted Mack Civic Park on Sunday 1 June.

Mirroring Pride Month 2025’s theme of  “Love, Respect, Empower”, this vibrant, family friendly afternoon will feature:

Live music

Dazzling drag entertainment

Face painting (for all ages)

Children’s activities

Food trucks

A special rainbow dog competition (dress your pups in Pride-themed outfits!)

As daylight fades, stay to experience a tribute to local queer history. Council buildings will be lit in rainbow colours, setting the scene for powerful projections from Mapping Queer North Sydney onto the walls of Stanton Library. These stories honour the lives, voices and contributions of the LGBTIQA+ community in our local area.

The Mapping Queer North Sydney initiative, developed over the past two years, has unearthed and digitised the diverse histories of the LGBTIQA+ community across the local area. These collected stories are a rich, intimate archive of the people, places and experiences that continue to shape North Sydney’s queer identity.

This free, inclusive event is open to all - bring a picnic rug, your friends and your pride.

Work up a sweat every day in June to raise funds for life-changing support services for rainbow communities in Australia

1st June – 30th June

Join us for a fun-filled day celebrating Pride Month with the Western Sydney Rainbow Families community!

There’ll be a face painter, BBQ lunch provided, and craft and bubble activities for the kids.

This event will be a great opportunity for our Western Sydney families to catch up with friends.

Sunday, 1 June
Emu Plains Community Centre, Lawson Street, Emu Plains
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Trans people have always existed, yet in recent years, their identities have become politicised, exoticised, and—far too often—weaponised in cultural debates. Law & Life: Transgender Stories hands the mic and spotlight back to trans voices, with a night of storytelling and personal performance.

Presented by the Inner City Legal Centre, the people who brought you last year’s sold-out Sex Work: A Legal and Social History, this powerful event brings together five trans storytellers and one lifelong ally to share their lived experiences—navigating gender, identity, legality and survival. 

For a lot of trans people, the core of survival in a system stacked against them is creativity—so expect pageantry, song and outside-the-box-and-binary expression. Beyond the camp and colour though, this evening lays bare an important and necessary conversation. We must face up to the discrimination embedded in our culture and law, its human impact and what can be done to create a better, more inclusive world.

5th - 7th June 2025

SWEAT IT ALL OUT.

Join queers and friends for a cardio catharsis, powered by pop culture.

Each week, we trade sweat for joy and strength. We learn, burn and have furrn together.

BYO towel and water bottle — other essential equipment (like gloves) will be provided.

All welcome (ages 18+). No experience necessary. No dickheads.

You must agree to the Terms & Conditions and Liability Waiver to participate. 

We get sweaty on Gadigal & Wangal Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Questions?

Email: biggayboxing@gmail.com

Instagram: @biggayboxing

​Join us for a night of grace and giving where the legacy of LGBTQIA+ trailblazers illuminates our path forward.

Aurora Renaissance Ball – The Art of New Beginnings invites you to embrace an age of renewal, where we honour those who paved the way, and unite to create a future worthy of their courage.

Our hosts will guide you through an unforgettable evening featuring opportunities to contribute to vital LGBTQIA+ community initiatives, captivating performances by celebrated LGBTQIA+ artists, recognition of community luminaries, and an exquisite three-course dining experience.

Secure your place at this transformative gathering. Each ticket includes full evening entertainment, dining, and beverages while supporting Rainbow Giving Australia's grants programs that empower LGBTQIA+ communities nationwide.

Dress to impress in Renaissance-inspired formal attire - A grand prize awaits the best-dressed guest. 

Saturday June 7
6pm Sydney Town Hall | Gadigal

Oxford Street Studio class with professional teacher and male model.

All materials provided.

BYO drinks

Saturday 7th June & Saturday 14th June
Where: Bookshop Darlinghurst
Time: 4pm – 6pm

Learn some Safety tips for when you’re out and about. LGBTI participants and allies. Topics Include:
Defence against weapons especially knifes, Basic Strikes, Blocks, Ground Defence, Ways to escape

SMS 0411 808 451 to book a place
Prediction and Prevention of Violence

Tuesday 10th June
Where: Erskinville Town Hall
Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm

Family Zone at the Rainbow Precinct is back for Sydney Pride 2025. Each year Family Zone caters to over 200 families and their children making it a fun rainbow-filled day out for the kids and carers alike. Featuring drag queen story-time, face painting, crafting activities and goodie bags, the event is free (registration link) and there’s even a free 15 minute massage for any stressed out grown-ups!

Saturday 14th June
Where: East Sydney Community Centre
Time: 10am – 3pm

Walking Tour

Macquarie Street was laid out by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810. The decisions made along this street – by religious organisations, the state and the medical profession – have had great consequences for queer people since colonial times.

For Pride Month (1–30 June), Museums of History NSW curator Dr Tuan Nguyen will lead a history walk down Macquarie Street, exploring stories of queer people who walked along the same path: from same-sex relationships between convicts at the Hyde Park Barracks, to the first female Mitchell Librarian, Ida Leeson (who was in a committed lesbian relationship with Florence Birch for over 50 years), and bushranger Andrew George Scott (aka Captain Moonlite), whose late-19th-century criminal career involved The Mint and the Water Police Court – and many more.

14 June 2025. 10am- 11.30, 12.30-2.pm, 2.30-4.pm

Cost: $40 general, $32 MHNSW members

Details: 4pm Sunday 15 June 2025

Launch of OutStanding Short Story Competition when the Theme for 2025 will be announced

This is OutStanding’s winter competition for stories of 750 words or less relating to the Australian queer experience

First Prize of $1,000 with many other fabulous prizes

OutStanding is a registered charity run for and by our community with the twin aims of participation and excellence in writing

The Launch is virtual on Facebook with full details on outstandingstories.net

Sunday 15 June 2025

4pm Sunday

Pride run will be held on Saturday 21st of June 2025 at 8:00 AM in Centennial Park - Duck Pond (opposite Spruce Goose Diner) for a fun 5km run or walk. 

Get ready for Family Pride! - 22 June 2025. Join us for Family Pride, the biggest, funnest day of the year – at Marrickville!

Join us for Family Pride – a celebration for LGBTQ+ parents, carers, and kids in the heart of the Inner West.

Enjoy a relaxed day with family-friendly entertainment, kids' music, storytimes and community connection in a beautiful indoor-outdoor space at the library pavilion.

Special Guest 🧡 We'll have the lovely Abbie Jane and her mum from the Rainbow Shoelace Project hosting a storytime reading of her new book - Abbie's True Colours! She'll also be giving away her coloured shoe bead packets so you can make your laces a symbol of inclusion and support for queer kids.

New snazzy location!

Marrickville Library Pavilion
313 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville NSW
Sunday 22 June 2025
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Policing has two sides: the police and the policed. On the anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (24 June 1978), join us for this special Collections Series event. This panel discussion between Garry Wotherspoon (78er and historian), George Savoulis (Curatorial Director, Qtopia Sydney) and Tuan Nguyen (Assistant Curator, Museums of History NSW) will consider the complex relationship between the LGBTQIA+ community and the police, within the walls of the former Water Police Court at the Justice & Police Museum.

 The discussion will use the Darlinghurst Police Station – now the home of Qtopia Sydney, a centre for queer history and culture – as a point of reference, drawing upon photographs and plans from Museums of History NSW collections. Also on display will be letters written in 1880 by the bushranger Andrew George Scott (aka Captain Moonlite) in which he professed his love for his accomplice James Nesbitt; the 2018 video artwork With whom I was united by every tie by Todd Fuller, celebrating the love between Scott and Nesbitt; and the original plan of the Darlinghurst Police Station.

Tuesday 24 June 2025, 6pm–7.30pm
Justice & Police Museum
Panel talk and Q&A
Cost: general $30, members $24