Lance Mumby, 67, had a “sliding doors” moment when a participant in Sydney’s first-ever Mardi Gras parade coaxed him out of an Oxford Street bar with a rousing call to action nearly five decades ago.

“They said, out of the bars, and into the streets. So we joined them.

The 78ers urged participants and spectators to remember the parade began in protest.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“That’s how I became involved, and I’ve been involved ever since. You could call me an accidental activist.”

He’s among the 78ers, a group of LGBT activists who marched in the original Sydney Mardi Gras on June 24, 1978, and participated in the protests against police violence and arrests at the event.

The group was among the first floats which have just passed through Taylor Square on a big bus.

Mumby said the atmosphere was “euphoric” along Oxford Street during that first parade in 1978, but “things dramatically changed when we got to Kings Cross. A lot of people were arrested.

Lance Mumby and Karl Zlotkowski recall the first Mardi Gras parade earlier this week.Credit: Kate Geraghty

“I was lucky I was out, but it was a very scary night, and it affected me for years. It was a different time, that’s all I can say. I worked for a bank, and had I been seen, I would have been sacked.

“I was scared for days after.”

Mumby welcomed the fact that more LGBTQ people now felt “free to be”, but he urged the community to remember the parade had originated in protest.

“We just have to be mindful of what happened at the start, and why we’re all here,” he said.

Karl Zlotkowski, 69, said the group would be carrying a sign bearing the words “Out of the bars, and into the streets” to encourage others to be out and proud.

“We’re not afraid anymore,” he said.