Saturday 27 February
People with Disability Australia (PWDA), the national cross-disability rights and representative organisation led by and for people with disability, will march in the 2026 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade under the banner InFocus: Queer & Disabled.
The theme reflects a simple truth. Queer disabled people have always been part of Pride, but we have not always been centred within it.
InFocus is about pride and visibility. It is also about recognition, leadership and structural change. LGBTQIA+ people with disability continue to face discrimination in healthcare, employment, housing and support systems. Those barriers are not accidental. They are built into the way systems operate.
PWDA Acting CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said visibility must translate into reform.
"Pride is powerful because it makes people visible," Spindler-Smith said.
"But visibility on its own does not dismantle discrimination. Nearly two thirds of LGBTQIA+ people with disability in our national survey experience discrimination because of who they are. Sixty-five per cent reported discrimination from healthcare workers, support workers, carers or family members. Sixty-four per cent said they had not been believed or had their identity ignored. What feels personal is in fact structural."
"InFocus is about centring queer disabled leadership and creating systems that reflect how people, like me, actually live. Pride should not end at the parade. It should carry through into policy decisions, funding priorities and accountability."
PWDA member Rory Keyes, who identifies as pansexual and non-binary, said marching with PWDA at Sydney World Pride marked a turning point.
"Marching with PWDA was the first time I felt fully safe and seen as my whole self," Keyes said.
"Being pan and non-binary and disabled is not something I should have to separate. But often you feel like you have to choose which part of yourself people will accept.
"InFocus means I do not have to shrink. I can show up as all of who I am, without apology."
PWDA Board Director Tahlia-Rose Vanissum, a proud Woppaburra and pansexual woman with psychosocial disability and chronic illness, said Indigenous and disabled leadership must be visible at national moments like Mardi Gras.
"As a pansexual Aboriginal woman with disability, raised by a lesbian Aboriginal woman with disability, I understand first-hand the limits of systems that were never designed to include us," Vanissum said.
"These systems continue to respond in fragmented and siloed ways, increasing the risk of harm and violence for Indigenous, queer and disabled people. Systems must respond to all of us, and all parts of us.
"Indigenous people carry deep cultural strength and lived knowledge of the consequences of systemic failure. This knowledge is grounded in generations of survival and care, and remains unmatched in Australia.
"When Indigenous, queer and disabled people lead, systems improve for everyone. Culturally responsive practice, accessibility and justice are essential to our safety and the fulfilment of our human rights."
PWDA's participation is grounded in research and lived experience. Survey data from nearly one thousand LGBTQIA+ people with disability confirms discrimination remains widespread across healthcare, employment and support services. Many respondents described feeling excluded in both disability and queer spaces, navigating environments that were not designed with them in mind.
The InFocus: Queer & Disabled campaign continues throughout February and March through a national digital storytelling series amplifying the experiences and expertise of queer and disabled voices.
PWDA will march with joy. But we will also march with purpose. Queer disabled people are not peripheral to Pride. We are part of its leadership, its history and its future.
