Barry Charles is a respected member of the 78er’s but his fight for equality started in 1971.

Barry Charles is a respected member of the 78er’s but his fight for equality started at CAMP Inc meetings in 1971 and participating in several gay demonstrations and activities including the 1973 march from Sydney Town Hall and a 1978 protest march in San Francisco led by gay rights activist, Harvey Milk. On returning to Sydney his longtime friends told him of plans for the Mardi Gras event on Oxford St. “I was particularly happy to chant, ‘Out of the bars...into the streets’ which had been so effective on Castro Street”.

Barry later joined the law reform movement as Co-Convenor of Gay Rights Lobby from 1981 to 1984 and attended the first Police/Gay Liason Committee. He remains active in the fight for equality and was proudly marching alongside the 20th Anniversary float of 78ers in 1998.