This past weekend saw South African LGBTI groups march in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth in protest against the proposal of the Council of Traditional Leaders brought before Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee asking to remove the constitutional provision protecting individuals from being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity as well as the Traditional Courts Bill.
The right to sexual orientation, along with numerous other freedoms has been entrenched in our constitution.
Disturbingly, many of our hard fought rights are at great risk of being eroded by constant ‘attacks’ on our constitution from various interest groups. The FW De Klerk Foundation is the highest profile group defending the constitution. FW De Klerk was recently under the spotlight for remarks said about apartheid and separate development in a recent CNN Interview (See: FW De Klerk Speaks to CNN Interview and Reactions) – the attacking of the man and not the ball has become indicative of a section of our political spectrum experiencing an ever increasing difficulty to hold on to power.
The swing from a left leaning liberal society to right leaning restrictive society is a natural one but not an era in which most who fought for the Rainbow Nation will find comfortable. Of course the swing may just be the last dying gasp from aged leaders desperate to hold on to power for just a little longer whilst they complete the feathering of their nests!
These swings and attacks on our freedoms that are occurring now make me highly concerned for the great strides that we made as a mixed and tolerant society – those early days of euphoria have been replaced by fights and protests to ensure that our freedoms remain entrenched.
BUT, one must admit that no-one but the LGBTI community can make a protest look stunning, Doll.
A word of advice to the LGBTI community, though – the erosion of your rights is serious poofie kakka and you need to be more aggressive, so less smiling and fashion co-ordination, less dancing and prancing, less posing and let’s get down to the serious stuff of protecting you from discrimination.
Just a thought – next time protest in ‘ordinary’ clothes so that the powers that be will see that you mean business and are amongst society and contributing on a daily basis.
Alan Straton
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I think they look gorgeous. What happened to our constitution?
Kind of with the comment above – we all do things differently – so why not do it with a bit of bling and swagger. Would they have received as much exposure if it wasnt as colourful – seeing protests are becoming an almost daily occurence?
Farmers would have come with their tractors and diesel bakkies, Cosatu would have toyi- toyied, municipal workers would have overturned refuse bins and the taxi industry would have blocked off main arterial roads – so in all fairness if they want to smile and swagger – why not….?
If the LGBTI Community mean business then I think the bigger impact would have been to show just how serious they are and do something that is not what we have come to EXPECT – juss my opinion, though.