A crowd of 400,000 let out a roar in Sydney's gay quarter on Saturday night, as 300 lesbian bikers revved their engines, flashed their lights and sped away to launch the 2001 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The annual parade, now recognised as the world's biggest gay event, once again impressed spectators with its exuberant sexuality, carnival-style drag queens, raunchy dancers and bare flesh.
There was some criticism this year that the march was more about hedonism than gay rights. But Mardi Gras president Julie Regan insisted the parade, which began in 1978 as an illegal protest march, was still essentially a civil rights demonstration.
"The issue of gay and lesbian parenting will be highlighted on Saturday night and bring to light the inequalities that currently exist in the areas of in-vitro fertilisation, adoption and recognition of non-biological parents," Ms Regan told a news conference earlier on Saturday.
To illustrate this year's theme of gay and lesbian parenting, the lead float carried a dozen pink flamingos holding in their beaks babies bundled in silver wraps.
Wearing Gay dad and Straight daughter T-shirts, Richard Roberts and his daughter Rebecca walked with other families behind the main float to show people that there was more than one kind of family.
"I think it is important to acknowledge that we have rights as parents and that we are good parents, and here is my 26-year-old daughter to prove it," Mr Roberts told Reuters.
A wide range of community and political groups marched in gay solidarity, including Indigenous Australians like Sylvia Scott and Berryl Carr who rode in a white 1948 Cadillac for the third year in a row to help forge links between Australia's gay and black communities.
"We are trying to educate our community that gay people are just like everybody else," said Ms Carr.
"It's about reconciliation," she said.
At a time when Aboriginal land rights remain a controversial and politically charged issue in Australia, the Black, White & Pink (BWP) float, which represents indigenous, gay and transgender Australians, pushed the issue of a treaty.
"It's an expression of solidarity with Aboriginal people and the focus of our float is reconciliation and, in particular, the need for a treaty between black and white Australia," said BWP member Stuart Stark.
"A lot of people come to the parade because it's fun, but I think they recognise Mardi Gras' political and social dimensions," Mr Stark added.