IT’S A STUDENT’S LIFE
Being young is not for sissies. Moving into adulthood is fraught with emotional and social growing pains. Establishing a sense of identity and belonging are all part of the journey. And, by all accounts, the road for gay youth is even more harrowing than it is for others.
Consider the fact that numerous studies conducted in the USA have concluded that up to 30 percent of youth that commit suicide are gay or lesbian.
While it appears that teens are bursting out of the closet at ever-younger ages, universities are still the first coming out environment for many who go on to study after matric. For the first time, students have the freedom to move around, create new social networks, drink alcohol, take drugs and of course, experiment sexually.
Whether they call themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning or just plain confused, many will have their first genuine same-sex sexual encounter while at university. So what kind of environment do gay students find themselves in after 13 years of post-apartheid liberation? With our homo-friendly constitution, are gay student organisations of any relevance on today’s campuses? Two student leaders from Gauteng universities certainly think so.
Zac Mbhele has been Chairperson of Activate at Wits for two years, while Sergio Do Santos is Vice Chairperson and a founding member of the University of Pretoria’s first gay student society, Up & Out. They may have different approaches to their organisations, but both feel that these bodies have a vital role to play in campus life.
New beginnings
In April 2005, when a religious society at Wits started lobbying for gay male students to be moved to the women’s residences, Zac decided to take action. He approached Activate, and was surprised to discover that the organisation was barely functioning with only two members on its committee. That led to him take on the task of re-energising the society, which is now a vibrant and active one. “I guess I’ve always just been someone prepared to stand up and be visible”, he explains modestly.
“I was actually surprised that there was no backlash when we re-started Activate. It seems that people who are homophobic are often too lazy to act on it,” he adds. Nevertheless thanks in part to Activate, conservative or homophobic groups now have to contend with a strong counter-voice on campus.
For Sergio, the motivation behind starting the now year-old Up & Out was primarily a social one. The University of Pretoria , with its conservative culture, has not traditionally been the friendliest of environments for gay students.
“There are a lot of gay people on campus”, says Sergio, “but there was no meeting space for us and you couldn’t be yourself. Everyone was giving everyone else the shifty eye. There was this feeling that you couldn’t be who you wanted to be on campus.”
Getting started was not easy; progressive constitution or not. According to Sergio. even getting registered as a campus society was a problem: “We had a lot of resistance from the university. We had an SRC (Student Representative Council) that had strong representation from the Vryheid Front and stressed Christian values. The chairperson of the SRC didn’t even show up to our founding meeting.”
The campus culture
Shortly after the organisation started up, gay and lesbian symbols and Up & Out’s logo on the campus graffiti wall were defaced. Up & Out posters advertising social events were also torn down shortly after they were put up.
Sergio says that “things have gotten a lot better now”, but feels that there appears to still be some subtle homophobia at work; explaining that the University has refused to create a link from its website to the Up & Out website. “We keep getting all kinds of excuses. We don’t know what to believe,” he sighs.
While Activate also experienced its posters being torn down, the campus environment at Wits is much more supportive. “I’ve never heard of a problem with staff or the campus structures. The Dean of Students is very gay friendly and we’ve never had issues with the SRC administration other than the usual bureaucracy,” says Zac.
Activate has a seat in the university structures and is seen as the official gay student voice. The organisation co-hosted a talk about homophobia at the reses which was initiated by the Vice Chancellor’s Office. Zac says that he’d describe the general campus culture towards gay students as “indifferent and tolerant – with pockets of gay friendliness.”
Apart from two gay students being pushed around at res parties in 2005, Zac reports few overtly homophobic incidents since then at Wits. So, what then, does he see as the purpose of a gay student organisation?
Students just wanna have fun…
Zac lists three areas in which he believes Activate can play a role: Providing a social space for students to connect and make friends; a voice that challenges homophobia and; public education through fostering understanding and tolerance on campus.
For Sergio, Up & Out’s key function is to develop a feeling of community among gay students: “We focus on socials and lots of parties. We’ve been criticised by other organisations for this. But that’s what students do – they go out and party.” He mentions that the organisation will soon be hosting a monthly student night at Legends nightclub in Pretoria.
Zac notes that Wits’ liberal activist history has led to the organisation having a more political approach: “We focus on more than just free pizza and punch,” he says, although, he admits, “that does perhaps mean that we have fewer members.” (While Activate has 60 or so registered members, Up & Out says that it has around 100.)
While making it clear that politics is not its primary focus, Sergio explains that Up & Out’s efforts are not only directed towards throwing parties. “There are lots of problems with coming out and we help people with that – speaking and counselling and introducing them to people who had the same experience.”
Coming out does seem to be one of the significant issues facing students – something that is echoed by Zac’s observation that the majority of Activate’s members are in their first year. After having come out or established a social network, “most will resign in second year,” he notes.
Sergio is clearly excited about the mark that his fledgling organisation is having on the university. “It’s been like an explosion on campus. For the first time, we’ve created a feeling of community among gay students.”
Getting together
Contrary to some expectations, the future may see gay student organisations actually growing in strength. Activate is spearheading a two day LGBTI Youth Leaders’ Lekgotla in Johannesburg in July. It will be a two-day gathering of LGBTI student societies from around the country, in which issues will be debated, ideas exchanged and an agenda for advancing LGBTI youth aspirations will be defined.
Zac notes that “We have some connections with other student organisations. We do keep in touch but not as regularly as it should be.” He’s hoping that the conference will change this.
Sergio is keen to take a message of rejecting a gay ghetto mentality to the lekotla. He believes that gay activists should acknowledge that gays and lesbians are part of a broader society. “We should stop screaming and shouting only about homophobia – there are so many other issues that affect ev
My 2 cents worth…. Well done, Luiz, on an excellent article that highlights an aspect of the gay community that is so often forgotten about or simply neglected.
Well done also to Zac and his team at Wits and Alex and Sergio at Tuks for doing a great job on your respective campuses.
Interestingly enough, there is a gay organisation/club/society on just about every South African university campus, all facing similar problems. Maties has Lesbigay, UCT has Rainbow, Rhodes has OUTRhodes and the University of the Free State has XXY Flame (the last time I checked, I could not find such organisations in the North West, Limpopo or KwaZulu Natal).
As a former Chairperson of Lesbigay in Stellenbosch, I know well how difficult it can be for an organisation to face the mentioned challenges of acceptance and tolerance head on, especially on a campus that is traditionally conservative. However, one of the biggest challenges these organisations face and which has gone unmentioned in this article, is that of finances. With limited membership, societies like this cannot function on university grants and membership fees alone.
I feel that we, as a gay community, should at least try to assist these organisations financially as they really do make a difference in the lives of many. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you have been judged or ostracised because of your sexual orientation, you will understand why such organisations play such an important role on our campuses.
My two cents worth π
intrested. I’m the deputy chairperson for YID@UJ (RAU) I would like to be informed about the “indaba” and could you please tell me how to go about starting a gay society at UJ.
Contact Activate. Contact Zak or Lee at WITS Activate: activatewits@hotmail.com. They were the driving force behind the Lekgotla and I’m sure they will gladly assist you.
I think Zac is on the money when he notes that after 1st year, pple tend to drift away from a student Lesbi-gay soc. It is very diffciult to understand what exactly can be achieved on a campus. And SErgio is right, here, in pointing to the need to appeal beyond a simply gay-focused agenda. but ahving done that, what need is there for a gay-styled org ?
The purpose. In my opinion, when these organisations get started, their main purposes are being vocal on campus to create more awareness of gay students and their needs and to create a social platform on campus for gay students. One might think that students as such do not really need such organisations on campus with clubs and all that being so eaily within reach, but in Stellenbosch I found that there was indeed such a desire.
You are 100% correct when saying that enthusiasm dies after this presence has been established on campus, but it is then when the organisation can start making a significant contribution to the lives of those who are not yet up and out. In Stellenbosch we started a project called CloSup (Closet Support), a system through which gay individuals who are in the closet, who are struggling with a relationship or a break up, or whatever else, could anonymously get in touch with gay-friendly professionals who could help them.
At grass-roots level we had a buddy system, where the struggling member is teamed up with another member who can be his buddy – the one who will be there to talk to or just hang out with. The buddies were monitored to avoid any indiscretions or abusive actions, but in my experience provided a much-need ear and shoulder. Should the problem be of such a nature that the buddy could not assist, the struggling member was referred to a pre-selected, gay-friendly psychiatrist at the University’s Counselling Department for formal counselling and support.
Besides this kind of service, a lesbigay society on campus also monitors events on campus, becoming the “face” should say a homophobic situation be reported.
I won’t ramble on about this for much longer, but I firmly believe that these organisations/societies play a significant role on university campuses. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be accepted by their friends and family when they come out, and as Luiz pointed out in this article, university is most probably the place where that first peek from behind the closet door might happen.
I couldn’t agree more. There is a surprising number of closeted students who, like you say, do not have the most understanding family and friends. And because of this, many of these students would never go to a gay club out of fear of “being seen” by someone they know (of course it’s an irrational fear, but you don’t realise it when you’re in the closet). Many aren’t even lucky enough to have internet access to locate resources online.
LGBTI organizations exist for people like this. I have received countless emails from anonymous senders wanting to know what UP & OUT is all about, and what we do. I have yet to see some of these people at our socials, but some actually do scrape up the courage and attend our events, where they can be themselves and make friends. Imagine where they’d be if there hadn’t been an LGBTI society on campus. Many of us have been out in the gay scene for so long that we forget what it’s like to be in the closet.
why UP & OUT SUCKS!!!!!!!!. I’m a student from tuks and UP&OUT’s gay socials suck! Sergio is the worst organiser of these socials, except for the one or two he managed to pull of earlier this year (with the help of Alex, the founder of UP&OUT).
UP&OUT is not as glamourous and wonderful as this article tries to illustrate it as. It is analogous to a blogger on myspace trying to catch as many “fake” friends in one session as possible. The members (you have to pay a fee to be one) have little say & influence in what the council of UP&OUT decides on and council members like Sergio don’t take recommendations into consideration in any case. This is a disparate and incoherent society at best.
I’m dissappointed to see they want to have a monthly Legends social. At the previous social more than a quarter of the members of UP&OUT didn’t pitch for the Legends social and usually every second member that attends a social brings an outside friend along. Up&Out will definetely lose a lot of support from its members if its determined in heading on its current course. They should rather head back to the drawing board and try and cash in on the concept that sparked the whole phenomenon earlier this year and last year.
PS. The socials at nightclubs like legends are terrible. There is very little room for interaction and only a fraction of the members enjoy these seedy types of clubs. You can hardly call it a social when it’s merely an invitation to a large group of people to go clubbing at one spot…
UP&OUT Socials. The first two socials this year were kinda good, the ones that weren’t at Legends. Have to agree that the socials at Legends are really non-events since you dont really know who is from UP&OUT or Tuks and who isn’t. And you cant really chat and “social”-ize in a club all that much like at Tribeca. Hope they change their minds!!
Seems the Tukssudent hits to the core of A problem… u know, why do these organisations exist and what can they offer? If a gay guy wants to go clubbing alone or with a friend, he can go clubbing.. In a club the opportunity for “talk” is very limnited… unlikely to foster any kind of understanding or rapport…Or address campus-related issues…But mayb there are other events as well, where the latter might be discussed?
Socials at Legends. From next term we will host more socials elsewhere (not always at Legends).
We will be hosting an UP & OUT house party at my place in July sometime, like the one last year – we’ll let you know once that is finalized. We are also thinking of Sundowners at Oom Gerts after the last exams (just before rewrites). Tell us what you think of these ideas.
Oh, and which do you prefer: Huckleberry’s or TriBeCa? (Or any other venue that you think will be good for socials).
Alex π
Our apologies. Dear Tuksstudent,
I have read through your grievances, and I understand where you are coming from.
Yes, I admit we have lost focus of what’s really important to our members this year. Our socials haven’t been as frequent as last year, mostly because we got a little carried away with other undertakings. When our new management was elected in February this year, we decided to do things that no other LGBTI student society has ever done in this country. One of these is to host a week-long gay inter-varsity exchange in July 2007. Our sister societies at UCT, Stellenbosch, Rhodes and WITS all pledged their support. We spent most of our efforts planning the event and securing sponsorship (it was the first time any of us had attempted an undertaking this big, and none of us really knew how to go about it). However, a large portion of our sponsorship fell through and we have now postponed the inter-varsity until July 2008. Also, together with Amnesty International and the UP Sociology Society, we co-organized a protest march against the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe on 18 April 07. Once again, a lot of our resources went into the planning of this march with respect to advertising, UP Security and Metro Police.
In addition, we are celebrating Heritage Day this year by hosting a cultural week on campus, which includes a two-week long art exhibition in the Old Merensky Library where LGBTI artists will exhibit their work.
There are financial reasons why we are doing many of these things: Christo, who earlier commented on Luiz’s article, is completely right about the financial side of things. Running any student society is very expensive (our annual website hosting fees alone eat up a large chunk of the budget), and the money one must pay the university for the privilege of putting up just fifty posters is obscene. The money we get from membership fees doesn’t go very far, you know. But these expenses are justified; it is important that we market ourselves, so that even the most closeted students know about us.
These events have generated and will continue to generate money for us, which will ultimately allow us to take part (with our very own float) in Pride 2007 and Jool 2008.
Looking back, I realise that this is not what I intended when I started UP & OUT last year. We have lost focus of what is really important to our members. Perhaps having many socials is more important than, for example, having a float at Pride.
I will personally ensure that we revert to having more frequent socials, and at more diverse venues.
However, keep in mind that UP & OUT does have an email address where you can contact the society (gay@tuks.co.za). We have never heard from you before, so in future you might consider sending us a carbon copy of your list of gripes, so we needn’t find out about them in the Sunday press π
You (and any other UP & OUT members) are welcome to get involved in running the show. Our committee always welcomes people who are prepared to (actively) assist in shaping the society. We are, after all, only students and we all have exams to worry about. So the more help we can get, the better π
Regards,
Alex Ringelmann
Chairperson
UP & OUT
gay@tuks.co.za
084 327 6214
great. Alex, thanks for the reply – like I said, I have a problem with the way “other” council members (or whatever you call them) organize these socials. In fact I accompanied two other members to speak personally to Sergio and some of the other council members about lodging our grievances w.r.t. socials at Legends and the quality thereof. He told us bluntly that he is in charge of the socials and “what he says goes”. I am sorry, I did not realize you were an avenue to follow regarding the socials.
In my opinion the Huckleberry’s social you had earlier this year was the best one yet, with hands-down the best turn out. You had the best of both worlds so to say at that social. People could wander around easily (not as cramped as Tribeca) and talk and socialize while the clubbing types were entertained with the dj from legends. I thought that was a win-win situation for everyone, but apparantly not.
Your other ideas sound great, especially the sundowners idea after the exams. Till then…
Huckleberry’s. Yeah, Huckleberry’s was my favourite too (it had the best atmosphere of all the socials). The biggest reason why we haven’t gone back there yet is because two of the restaurant’s managers didn’t particularly like the idea of 100 fags swamping their restaurant (they were both pretty damn rude to us that night). Since then we’ve been holding our parties at Legends because we know we’re always welcome there…
However, the owner of Huckleberry’s later apologized for the behaviour of his managers and told us he’d love to have us there again. He assured us he would personally manage the floor at future UP & OUT socials to ensure that we feel welcome there.
We are still having end-of-the-month student nights at Legends according to an agreement we have with the club, but you are absolutely right about alternative venues.
So… expect the next social to be at Huckleberry’s again (we’ll let you when that will be as soon as we’ve confirmed a date with the Restaurant).
Alex π
P.S. Since I read your comments this morning, I’ve done some research and got opinions of other UP & OUTers. It turns out many students are really keen on more house parties in addition to more socials, so the house party is definitely happening in the holidays. I will email you guys the details a little closer to the time π
up&out sucks. I totally agree. This group started off well with Alex and some lecturers on board but then it became a fashion statement of the who’s who in the student world. Some shyish guys and girls are just never included in conversations. Some guys even the not so shy ones are also “ousted” by these groups just because they either aren’t “label-freaks” or just because they have moral standards. Although I have been the centre of attention at all occasions I still find this just as sickening as Tuksstudent
MAIL ME!!!!. thank you for the over whelming response, but…. I AM SICK OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THE ALEX AND SERGIO ARE UP & OUT.
AS the secretary if you do have any complaints email me, I havent heard any, stop dumping everything on Alex and Sergio, they arent the entire committee, and yes the complaints are valid, but as I said, I havent heard any. Mail gay@tuks and Alex will put you in touch with me and I will personally get a hold of you, we have coffee on campus and chat.
Love and hugs and kisses
Homophobic Poetry at Wits. As a recent guest artist at a WITS student poetry society , I was appalled at some of the homophobic, racist and backward attitudes expressed by some of the students. It really concerns me that ‘open minded’ students can hold such views and I wish any student societies that counteract these views all the very best.
Good luck.
Homophobic poetry at Wits. Hi there. Zak of Wits ACTIVATE here (from the article). We didn’t hear about this poetry slam at which homophobic poetry was recited. I think that says something in itself, which is that homophobes at Wits perhaps know not to be too public or vocal about their bigotry but to confine it to spaces where they feel they won’t be found out. ‘Coz they know we’d come down on them with the University management so hard and so fast their grandchildren would be born dizzy!
Poetry @ Wits. Zak, I must stress that homophobia and racism was not the point of the poetry slam but a couple of the the poets made comments in their poetry that shocked me. I was surprised that students could be so behind the times.
At the same time I really feel that freedom of speech is really important and they have a right to express these opinions. Perhaps some gay students could take part in the poetry sessions and get other points of view expressed too.
Congrats. An excellent article, I also have the priviledge of knowing Sergio personally, I am proud to call him my ‘gay’ nephew, his commitment to making Up & Out not just the biggest society at Tuks but also the most democratic is awe inspiring, I have read the other comments and would like to point out that tuksstudent is not being honest, one can only assume that they are inspired by sour grapes (maybe my gorgeous nephew declined to sleep with him), to both Activate and Up & Out keep up the good work.