Marching with pride: three journeys to Mardi Gras

By  Smriti Daniel 20 February 2025 7 min read

With Mardi Gras just around the corner, three of our people are preparing to march – each on their own remarkable journey.

From unearthing the secrets of ancient viruses to shaping a sustainable future and setting up cutting-edge telescopes in the outback, Emily Goddard, Chirantan Parui and Ash Porter are breaking new ground in more ways than one.

Claiming space to shine

Right now, Emily Goddard is 450km away from her home in Geraldton, Western Australia. She's in the outback at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, our Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, one of the most remote workstations in Australia. And it suits her down to the ground.

She and her partner came home after spending two years travelling 50,000 kilometres around Australia. Both had begun that journey after a period of shiftwork and were grateful they finally got to spend all their time in each other's company.

They also discovered something – they were no longer interested in the big cities, in a hectic life driven by consumerism and accumulation. Instead, Emily wanted to be out in nature.

Her wish was granted when she landed a job as a Field Technician on the international SKA Observatory’s SKA-Low telescope on Wajarri Yamaji Country. When it's complete, SKA-Low will be the biggest radio telescope of its kind in the world.

"I knew I wanted to be part of that. And that's what I love the best, I'm in the thick of it every day, putting up antennas, troubleshooting systems and chasing bungarra lizards out of the crib room. I love doing that stuff. It's awesome!"

And Emily also loves that she sees so much sky.

Her day starts at 6am with a glorious sunrise, and at night innumerable stars wink back at her through the velvet dark.

"That's what we're here for, isn't it? And it's incredible," she says.

Returning home has been the start of a whole new chapter for Emily, in particular because she chose to come out to her family for the first time as a 30-year-old.

"I was very scared about moving back to Geraldton with my partner and just being concerned about how being in the community would be, but it has been a really positive experience. My family was incredibly accepting," Emily says.

Part of her confidence was rooted in her experiences of meeting other LGBTIQ+ people on their long journey around the continent.

"I really, really love the queer communities across Australia. I love how accepting they are of everyone, how they let you be yourself. And whatever that looks like, it is just phenomenal," she says.

Now, Emily is gearing up to dance her way through the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade in 2025. It's been a chance to reflect on all the things she's learned.

"Be whoever you want to be. You are you; you will meet so many people in your life, and if those people don't accept you for who you are, then they're not your people. You will find your people.

"I'm very strong in who I am, but it's taken me a very long time to get here. Now, I let that shine through."

Speaking up for his rights

"This is my original voice," Chirantan Parui says.

These days, he speaks in a soft, gentle tone. But he also has a backup – a deeper, more traditionally masculine voice that he once relied on in interviews and professional situations. Back home in India, where Chirantan is originally from, he felt it was necessary to get by.

Growing up, Chirantan knew homosexuality was illegal in his country of birth – a weight that only lifted in 2018 when India's Supreme Court decriminalised it amid much fanfare and celebration. Yet discrimination still runs rampant.

"I was told that's what a man needed to sound like. If I didn’t sound like that, no one would pay attention to my qualifications or my experience. I've been in positions where I did not get a role because of my sexuality and how I sounded – simply because of who I am."

It's been two years since Chirantan moved from India to Australia to take up a position as a CERC Postdoctoral Fellow with us. Two years of speaking in his true voice, of simply showing up as himself. Today, he wears a Pride-themed lanyard around his neck, with two additional rainbow ribbons pinned to it.

"When you are allowed to be your authentic self, you can do wonderful things because you are in the best space in your mind. You are not worried about anything. You are just doing what you love, giving it everything you've got," he says.

No longer needing to mask himself has freed Chirantan to focus his energy on his research – specifically, on copper.

When he looks at copper, he sees opportunity. It's a strategic mineral for Australia that holds the key to net zero and a sustainable future. But it's also becoming harder to find. In Australia, reserves could be buried under hundreds of metres of soil and rock – difficult to spot and even harder to access. As part of our Mineral Resources research unit, Chirantan is developing new knowledge to better understand critical and strategic minerals and tools to find them.

Chirantan draws on his previous experience in the Himalayan region of India.

"The foundational knowledge I developed as part of my PhD back in India plays a strong role in my current work – I'm building on top of that solid foundation," he says.

"I'm learning a lot of new tools and new methodologies on top of that."

Chirantan's professional growth has gone hand in hand with his personal development.

As a site champion for our Pride Network, he works hard to showcase the work we do. He'll also be marching at Mardi Gras for the first time in his life – and he can't wait.

"I feel no anxiety or anything. I'm just looking forward to being myself and being with wonderful people," he says.

"I love how in Australia, and especially within CSIRO, you're celebrated for being who you are."

Digging into the past, fighting for the future

Cut open an ancient Viking's tooth, and it will stink to high heavens. Ash Porter knows this fun bit of trivia because they've actually done it – a testament to their knack for finding DNA in the most unusual places. Teeth and eggshells, smallpox scabs, a vaccination kit used by a doctor dating back to the Civil War in the US, the toepads of preserved bird specimens – there's hidden knowledge in all of them.

Ash has spent their career looking for fragmented bits of viral DNA and RNA. Some of the specimens they examine are over a century old. The work offers valuable insights, revealing the vast diversity of viruses present in nature, and a better understanding of viral evolutionary timelines.

"My background is in evolutionary biology, and I compare modern viral lineages or strains with the viral fragments we find in formalin-fixed wildlife specimens. It helps us understand how viruses have evolved over time, how they circulate in wildlife, and how they emerge in new hosts."

Ash loves this work.

"For me, it's about protecting wildlife, ecosystem and human health."

It was CSIRO's incredible National Research Collections Australia that had Ash putting up their hand to work with us. They've also always joined the Pride Network at every institution they’ve worked in since they've been out. CSIRO has been no exception.

"It's a great way to make community, but it's often a place where you can make change as well," they say.

Ash doesn't remember many academics who openly identified as LGBTQI+ during their studies. It's a big reason they want to be visibly queer and trans in the workplace. They're conscious of everyone who came before, and of their responsibility to everyone who comes after.

As Ash prepares to march in the Sydney Mardi Gras in 2025, they have a few people on their mind.

"I'm still thinking about the original 78ers who marched, and how many of them had so much on the line when they did that. They were risking being outed to their families and workplaces at a time when you could lose your job, they were risking becoming targets of violence. It was courageous for them to do it, and also so important.

"To me, it still is. It's about pushing back against institutionalised homophobia and discrimination against queer people. It's about declaring we are here."

Ash knows things have shifted in Australia in the intervening decades, but there's still a need to push for inclusion, equity and intersectionality.

"We're also fighting for our queer family overseas who still have their basic human rights under threat," they say.