by Dr Nyx McLean
We often forget that October is Pride Month in South Africa. On 13 October 1990, approximately eight hundred people marched in Johannesburg with their faces covered with paper bags out of fear of being identified – lesbian and gay rights were not yet protected.
Johannesburg Pride - more commonly known as Joburg Pride - was Africa’s first Pride event, and a defiant and defining moment for South Africa’s LGBTIAQ+ people.
The first Pride event was described as having a mood that was daring, bold and festive, where participants marched with the spirit that was instilled in 1990, one of hope and the prospect of transformation.They marched to demand recognition as equal citizens of South Africa. The march was rooted in the political, and it cared nothing for sponsors or profits to be turned at the bar.
Present day Pride events are very far removed from this first march.
It is this moment, which occurred in October 1990, that Pride needs to return to, that we need to recognise as our Pride Month. Pride in June is a celebration of the Stonewall Riots in the US. While a significant moment in itself and influential in terms of global LGBTIAQ+ rights, it has come to be co-opted and commodified. Brands and corporates capitalise on Pride in June, and this strips the meaning of Pride in South Africa down to a very superficial understanding that proclaims one must simply be bold, be themselves, and love is love. Well, yes, that’s a lovely sentiment.
But it is so far removed from the lived realities of the majority of LGBTIAQ+ South Africans who continue to face discrimination, threats of violence and hate crimes.
Although the granting of legal protection for LGBTIAQ+ people under the Constitution was a significant victory, these rights have resulted in discourses of equality and unity, which rainbow-washes all South Africans as being on an equal footing.
Such discourses mask the continuing inequalities which prevent LGBTIAQ+ people from accessing the protections promised to them in the Constitution. These inequalities have not been addressed and cannot be addressed within the branded profit churning corporate takeover of Pride. Violence does not sell well.
At this point in our history, violence against LGBTQIA+ people, and in particular, transgender people, has increased worldwide. On the African continent, LGBTQIA+ rights are in a dismal state; we only have to look to Uganda and the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Law on 29 May 2023. Kenya appears to be following suite with a similar law that seeks to punish homosexuality with imprisonment and death in some instances.
Where countries do afford some states protection or do not decriminalise LGBTIAQ+ rights, such as in Botswana and South Africa, these protections do not always translate from paper to people, in that high rates of homophobic and transphobic violence are still found.
Anti-LGBTIAQ+ sentiment continues in South Africa, as we have seen with recent incidents in Gqeberha, where two business owners have placed signs readings “LGBTQ not welcome at La Gardi - Save our Children” and another reading “Stop this evil. No lesbians. No gays. No bisexuals. No transgenders. No queers. Anti-LGBTQ. Save our children.”
Where an establishment in Cape Town feels they can comment on and target the intimacy of a queer couple in public when heterosexual couples are not subjected to the same level of scrutiny and discrimination.
On this day, 13 Oct 1990, at 1st Pride, we said ‘enough with the shame. Our lives are valid.’
— Bev (@bevditsie) October 13, 2022
So love yourself queer child. Don’t let anyone invalidate you.
Happy and safe Pride Day🌈 pic.twitter.com/K74bztkcTD
While this is the reality we face as the LGBTIAQ+ community, a reality that could become far more dangerous and violent, business and corporates capitalise on and misrepresent the lived realities of the LGBTIAQ+ community.
They bring us rainbow socks and tote bags for a month, with nothing said or done about the state of ongoing violence against LGBTIAQ+ people. This June moment is not ours; it is not local; it is not contextual.
It is so far removed from the lived experiences of the majority of the LGBTIAQ+ community, who continue to be targeted and receive violence. If businesses and corporates wish to be true allies, then celebrate Pride Month with us in October, reflect on our history and help us to imagine a safer future.
In choosing to wash over the real violence that the majority of LGBTIAQ+ people continue to experience, businesses and corporates quite simply negate the true purpose of Pride that those first brave community members marched for on a Saturday in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
* Nyx McLean is an NRF-rated researcher specialising in LGBTIAQ+ identities and communities, including Pride. Their doctoral research was a critical historical analysis of Joburg Pride in the context of South African LGBTIAQ+ rights.
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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