Shane Jenek first celebrated Mardi Gras in 2001. This year, Courtney Act is hosting it on TV.

In 2000, Shane Jenek went from drinking vodka and orange juice at the Brisbane City Rowers to dancing in gay bars on Sydney’s Oxford Street.

In the years since, Shane (who uses the pronoun ‘they’) has become an international drag queen, competed in RuPaul’s Drag Race, won 2018’s UK Celebrity Big Brother and was the runner up of 2019’s season of Dancing with the Stars, Australia.

They also competed in the inaugural season of Australian Idol in 2003, and in the years since has become one of the country’s most recognisable LGBTQIA+ icons.

If these accolades sound strangely familiar to you but you don’t recognise the name, that’s probably because you know Shane by their stage name: Courtney Act (a play on the words, ‘court in the act’).

This year sees Courtney join comedians Joel Creasey and Zoë Coombs Marr, and Studio 10 presenter Narelda Jacobs as a host of SBS’ live Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras coverage.

But back to Sydney in 2000, at just 18, the now 38-year-old star who was in the city to visit NIDA – one of Australia’s most renowned performing arts schools – was taken to Stonewall, a gay bar on Oxford Street, by a friend.

“It wasn’t until I got to Sydney that I realised I liked boys,” they tell Mamamia.

“A friend who I had known from Brisbane took me to Stonewall and I was just in a strange denial. I was like ‘it’s not just one of those gay bars, is it?’ and she said, ‘trust me, you’ll love it’.”

It was also where Shane would have their first kiss.

“On the second floor on Stonewall by the DJ booth,” they specify. “It was all magic from there.”

A small look into what it’s like rehearsing for the Mardi Gras parade. Post continues below.

The year after would see them attend their first Mardi Gras.

“It involved a trip to Lincraft and it involved hot glue, glitter and very small articles of clothing purchased from the lingerie section of Myers. I bought some plastic leaves, some plastic vines and I hot glued them to a bra and panties and had giant blonde hair,” they said.

It was the inclusivity and diversity, however, that Courtney remembers most vividly.

“Normally when you go out in the scene you see people who kind of look like you, are the same age as you and the same skin colour,” she says. “Mardi Gras was this melting pot of people of different genders, ages, ethnicities and people of different subcultures.

“Like you’d be on the dance floor, dancing next to like a daddy, a twink, a trans-man and some dykes who had just ridden their motorcycles up Oxford Street. It just felt so inclusive, diverse and special – being in an all-queer space.”

 

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A post shared by Courtney Act (@courtneyact) on Jan 29, 2020 at 11:17pm PST

19 years later and now returning to the festival as a host, Courtney says a key aspect of Mardi Gras is the way it amplifies the voices and stories of the queer community, calling it a celebration of radical self-expression.

“It’s not just sharing my story, it’s pushing up the voices of other people whose voices aren’t often heard,” they continue.

“In our community, I’d be looking at the intersection of discrimination, queer people of colour, queer women, queer people of disabilities, queer Indigenous people,” they add. “It just makes sense [that the telecast is on] SBS where there’s so much emphasis on diversity and inclusion. It’s not ‘box-ticking’ [either], it just feels right. We want to tell lots of different stories because there’s just such a richness to them.”

It also benefits the entire community, they say.

“It’s getting to hear those stories that lift us all up. It’s one thing to say, ‘oh yes, we’ve got equality’ but not everybody in our community has it. I think if you’re a cis, white gay man assuming that just because you have equality that means all people in our community do, then that’s a little short-sighted.”

Speaking to this, Courtney brings up the fact that out of 54 countries in the British Commonwealth, homosexual activity remains a criminal offence in 34 of them. In Brunei and Northern Nigeria, the offence is punishable by the death penalty.

“In the British Commonwealth, it’s unfathomable to think that people are being killed just because of their choice in clothing or who they love,” adds Courtney.

 

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A post shared by Courtney Act (@courtneyact) on Jan 19, 2020 at 4:34pm PST

For Courtney, sharing stories is something that comes naturally.

During their time on Dancing with the Stars, one of their most memorable performances was from the week where contestants were asked to portray their ‘most memorable year’. For Courtney, this was 2014, the year she discovered the term ‘gender fluid’.

“[It] meant that who I was didn’t have to be just a man or a woman, I could express my masculinity and femininity the way I wanted and that was okay,” they told cameras at the time. 

Beginning her dance as ‘Courtney Act,’ she stripped away her costume, wig and makeup, finishing her performance as ‘Shane Jenek’.

 

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A post shared by Courtney Act (@courtneyact) on Apr 1, 2019 at 12:45am PDT

Speaking of her decision to delve into LGBTQIA+ awareness, Courtney says it was a gradual process.

“I realised there’s a duty that’s incumbent on people in the public eye, especially when you’re in a minority to think about how you can best use your voice through doing what you love.”

“I can’t remember what the turning point was. I really loved learning and I just realised there are people who don’t have a voice and I am privileged to have one. [It then became] important that I use that voice to point to other people’s experiences who don’t have that privilege.”

It was also a process of research and a lot of Googling.

“I always think Google’s your friend,” they add. “The number of times people often get frustrated or complain about something they don’t understand, they could have just Googled it and found out.

“There are so many resources out there.”

Courtney’s journey to being ‘gender fluid’ is something she’s profiling in her most recent show, Fluid – a pop-cabaret adventure exploring “song, soul, sexuality, and perhaps a little saliva,” for those with front-row tickets.

“There’s everything from titillating stories of a free-wheeling orgy of a woman and two men, and a love of a romantic weekend in Vienna and then there’s also a real personal struggle about my gender identity,” Courtney says.

It’s through that light and shade that Courtney hopes to make her exploration of queer theory accessible.

“People who are confused by labels or the lengths of the LGBTQIA+ acronym might, rather than dismiss all of that stuff as annoying, go, ‘oh wow, there’s really value in labels and all the different identities’. [I’m hoping] they can see how all these labels allow people to understand who they are and become more comfortable in themselves.

“It’s very much about my personal journey with gender and trying to understand my own gender identity. Growing up in Brisbane in the 80s, I felt a very strong expectation of what a man was supposed to be. I unpack that.

“I learnt that it’s okay for boys to express their femininity and it’s okay for girls to express their femininity.”

 

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A post shared by Courtney Act (@courtneyact) on Feb 27, 2020 at 11:20pm PST

When Courtney Act takes Oxford Street’s Taylor Square tonight, most people will recognise a highly-acclaimed performer.

But behind the fanfare, the glitz and the glamour, it’ll hopefully also be evident that Courtney’s journey to the main stage was one of learning and more importantly, becoming.

You can watch Courtney Act host the SBS’ Mardi Gras on Saturday, February 29 from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. Tickets for Courtney Act’s show, Fluid are available on her website.