Before his stage-four cancer diagnosis, Brian Dunne was living as a straight, devout Catholic in a regional community.
On Saturday the 74-year-old will parade in his third Mardi Gras, dressed in peacock feathers while dancing to Olivia Newton-John’s Xanadu, cancer-free.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Sydney for one of the world's biggest LGBTQI events, featuring about 200 floats and 11,000 marchers in its 47th year.
Among them will be Mr Dunne and the Peacock Mormons, a group founded by Brad Harker and husband Scott in 2018, originally to protest against policies enforced by church leadership.
Now overturned, the measures banned baptism of children born to LGBTQI couples and labelled Mormons in same-sex marriages as "apostates".
About half of the group's 100 members are from religious backgrounds.
Growing up in Toowoomba, in Queensland’s south, Mr Dunne said he never considered that he could be anything but straight.
“In my Catholic family, they looked down on anyone who was different,” he told AAP.
But after receiving his cancer diagnosis at the age of 65, Mr Dunne realised he needed to change his life and come out.
His former wife, five children and 13 grandchildren are now fully supportive.
"To me, that's more of a Christian attitude than unfortunately what some church people have towards LGBTQIA+ people," said Mr Dunne.
About three years ago, he met 79-year-old Dennis Coleman on a dating app and on Saturday they will march side-by-side.
The 2025 Mardi Gras theme is "free to be", a message that the duo work to reinforce to young LGBTQI people through the Peacock Mormons group and simple actions like holding hands on the street.
"Other people, younger than us, see this is fine," Mr Coleman said.
Another float will carry a Rocky Horror Picture Show theme, with members of Free, Gay and Happy performing the Time Warp.
The group was founded by Teresa Leggett after she supported her former husband Michael to come out.
"He thought it would be better to be dead than gay," she said.
"So I took him to his first Mardi Gras to show him how amazing the gay community was."
They attended their first Mardi Gras together more than two decades ago and have returned every year since with an elaborately-crafted float.
Being part of the parade was surreal, Ms Leggett said.
"It's a sound you've never heard before, 250,000 people at that very moment wish they were you," she said.
