The bright glitter, sequins and rainbows of Sydney's Mardi Gras will be tinged with sadness as the LGBTQI community mourns and celebrates the lives of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
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Hundreds of thousands will gather in Oxford Street for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras annual parade festivities on Saturday.
Float organiser Jane O'Keefe, who has been participating in the parade for years, feels the loss of the couple but is all the more determined to give her very best for crowds.
"Our community's very used to death," she told AAP.
"There will not be one of us marching tomorrow night that hasn't been heartbroken and grieving, but we can be both.
"We can hold both grief, trauma, and joy - and remember them in a way."
The founder of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee will be joined by lesbian community members dressed in pink utility jumpsuits with "Lesbies" written on the back in Barbie font.
While the celebratory atmosphere will hold a slightly darker tone this year given recent events, the group intends to march with heads held high and celebrate the lives of those lost.
The Mardi Gras board officially uninvited police from participating in the parade after a serving officer was charged with murdering Mr Baird, 26, and Mr Davies, 29.
The bodies of the young men were found in Bungonia near Goulburn on Tuesday after Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly killed the pair with his police-issued gun before going to great lengths to cover the murders up.
More than 60 police officers will march as part of the parade in a new "no uniform" compromise reached with NSW Police.
Mardi Gras board co-chair Brandon Bear said organisers understood it was a difficult time for the community and that there was a range of opinions on the subject of police participation.
"The commissioner and the team were actually happy to listen to those opinions from members of the community," he told reporters.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was a good thing police were marching in the parade, arguing Australia had come a long way since Mardi Gras' inception in 1978, when gay and lesbian people were locked up for being who they were.
"The relationships between the police and the community have much improved over a period of years and this is an opportunity where members of the gay and lesbian (communities), who happen to be police officers, get to march," he told Nine's Weekend Today on Saturday.
"I think it's a positive thing. This is an inclusive event. This is about bringing people together - a moment of unity rather than division."
Speakers at a rally on Friday night called for Mardi Gras organisers to reinstate their ban on police participating in the Oxford Street parade.
The Mardi Gras board on Monday uninvited police from participating in the parade, but the parties reached a deal on Wednesday for officers to march out of uniform.
First held more than four decades ago as a protest against discrimination, the Sydney Mardi Gras has become one of the world's largest LGBTQI events.
"Mardi Gras has always been a lot of things to a lot of people," board co-chair Melanie Schwerdt said.
"For some, this will be a more sombre event and some might choose to sit this one out.
"What we can say is that if you do come along, there will be a space for you."
The Qantas float will bear the name of Mr Davies, who worked as an international flight attendant for the airline.
Australian Associated Press
