Western Cape “gay curse” woman taken to Equality Court
The 2015 Pink Loerie parade
A George woman may have to appear in court after she said that gay people were a curse on the region ahead of the Pink Loerie Festival.
In an April 21 Facebook post, Desiree du Preez lashed out against the annual LGBT event in neighbouring Knysna, which will feature a mass same-sex wedding on Friday.
“People of Eden, why do we allow a curse on our region due to the Pink Loerie Festival and mass gay marriage?” she asked in the Georgiete Staan Saam group, which has over 18,000 members.
“It is only because Christians do nothing. Let us stand up and tell the gays they are no longer welcome. They have to find another home. Who agrees with me?”
The post, written in Afrikaans, was deleted by the group administrator but not before another George resident, Minette Van Rensburg, spotted it. She lodged a complaint with the Equality Court against du Preez on Friday.
“The comment Desiree made on Georgiete Staan Saam hurts me deeply, and I feel my dignity as a person has been seriously violated by her,” Van Rensburg told Mambaonline.
“I am threatened by her call on others to make myself and other gay people feel unwelcome in George and that we should be forced to find another place to stay.”
Van Rensburg believes that the post is “basically calling on other people to hate myself and people like me and to act on such hate so that they do not have to share the same town with us”.
The Equality Court is expected to hear her application on the 6th of May. Mambaonline has contacted du Preez via Facebook but has not received a response.
This year’s Pink Loerie Mardi Gras Arts Festival runs from Wednesday 27 April to Sunday 1 May. It will feature events such as a mass-same sex wedding officiated by Knysna’s mayor, parties, pageants, a parade, the Wigstock drag festival and the Bear Colony Festival.
The event, now in its 16th year, is generally well received by the locals but has previously come under fire from conservative Christians who’ve unsuccessfully lobbied to have it cancelled or moved.
I find it interesting that some Christians seem to think that they have a right to condemn people for existing, want the power to have control over them, and force them elsewhere. Now just where did Jesus ever say and such thing. He also warned that one would be judged just as harshly as that person judged others. I think Christians should remember that only God has that right to Judge people about their life and stop playing heretical games of playing God.