Yes, now that we've recovered from this year's float, it's time to start thinking about next year's. Let us know if you have any ideas!

Check out our new displays of Mardi Gras photos on the Previous floats tab!
Let us know if you have any to add, too. We're always keen to see more!

It's done! Mardi Gras is over for another year... but we still have a debrief to come!

Join us to see the footage and have a chat about how it went and how we could improve for next year:

This Sunday, the 9th of March, 1pm at the Friend in Hand Hotel, 85 Cowper St, Glebe.

Everyone is welcome, whether you were part of the parade or you're just interested!

This event is listed at facebook.com/events/233156620201375

Fill in this form to participate in our Mardi Gras float on March 1, 2014 - Intersectionality: Find out what it means to me!
Get in early to help us plan! http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/1538460/SQA-Intersectionality-float-at-Mardi-Gras-2014

Also, look out on Facebook or the Meetup for our working bee next week, Saturday February 15!

Wow, this page needed a bit of an overhaul... hopefully everything's here now! We're meeting 8pm tonight (4/2/14) at Green Palace, 182 King St, Newtown to discuss mardi gras stuff and whatever else we wish. Come along if you happen to see this in time!

Intersectionality: Find out what it means to me!

What do you think? So much trouble in both atheist and queer communities, with people not respecting other groups within them - and we know we're in that situation in both groups. So Aretha Franklin, and... maypoles!

Yes, it looks like we're building a few maypoles, with ribbons of LED rope, to illustrate us having different strands of identity woven into our personalities.

We're going to need more people to help out with ideas, building and all the other little things that go into a float. Get involved at facebook.com/events/118468884994953, check out our events at meetup.com/Sydney-Queer-Atheists/ or show up tonight at Green Palace and meet us in person!

We have just started up a Meetup - join us at meetup.com/Sydney-Queer-Atheists to hear about all our events! It's a non-autonomous group, for everyone who is queer-friendly and atheist-friendly.

Meetup isn't a free service. We have bought a six month membership to try it out, and will continue if it proves its worth, so let us know if it's better than just facebook-email-website!

Our mardi gras float event is at meetup.com/Sydney-Queer-Atheists/events/160516392/, and assorted meetings, working bees and debriefs will appear there as they're organised, as well as anything else we do!

Intersectionality: Find out what it means to me!

What do you think? So much trouble in both atheist and queer communities, with people not respecting other groups within them - and we know we're in that situation in both groups. So Aretha Franklin, maybe protest signs? "Intersectionality is the belief that oppressions are all interlinked and cannot be solved alone", "Heteronormativity x Religionormativity = (haven't quite thought that far yet)", "Atheist Feminist', "Oppressions are not isolated", "Intersectionality Now" - as careful or as agressive as we like.

What do you imagine a float like this to look like? Is there an excuse for costumes, lighting or choreography? Are you keen?

Previous ideas for mardi gras floats - what do you all think of these? What else can you come up with that would be more topical, more exciting or simply different?
The overall theme for the parade this year is about colour - If that inspires you, then great. If not, we don't need to fit in!

- Cavalcade of evolution: dress up or carry placards or backpack puppets of different stages of evolution. Maybe 'human' is the final stage - or maybe it's 'atheist'...

- Go back to the very beginning of evolution and focus on the amoeba. This is our 'common ancestor'. I see blue fabric waves and big round amoeba chaos everywhere.

- Love hearts. This was an idea about tolerance, from last year. Does the person who thought of it want to explain - or anyone else want to imagine more?

- Famous atheists. Dress up as different people, carry signs with names or make a huge bust of someone, if we're really keen. I'm told it's easy! Who do we want to celebrate?

- If we really want to, we can redo or extend one of the ideas we've already used, such as 'fly free from religion' or 'come out as atheist'. And there's always someone who remembers our very first float in 2009 and really wants to see us zooming around in cardboard buses again!

What do you think! Any potential? Anything you think should never be spoken of again? Any new ideas, even a single nonsensical strand of thought that might inspire someone else? Tell us on our Contact Us page, or join the discussion on facebook.

Kate gave a talk about critical atheism at Skepticamp yesterday, and was interviewed for The Skeptic Zone about our mardi gras floats, amongst other things. The talk is written up from notes at criticalatheism.wordpress.com and will show up on youtube sometime soon. The interview will show up at skepticzone.tv, probably within the next month. I'll let you know!