STUDENTS STAGE ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA PROTEST

Students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) will stage an anti-homophobia “Pink Protest” on Thursday in response to the vandalism of an exhibit to promote LGBT equality earlier this week.

The pink “closet”, which was set alight late on Monday night, had been displayed on campus as part of gay student society RainbowUCT’s “Pink Week”.

RainbowUCT chairperson Dylan van Vuuren described the incident as a “hate crime” and said that the remains of the Closet have remained in position for the duration of Pink Week in order to “memorialise those who have suffered injustices and lost their lives at the hands of homophobia and homoprejudice”.

“While Rainbow UCT is deeply concerned about this violent hate crime, the very act exponentially gives greater credibility to the message the closet was intended to symbolise – the crux of Pink Week: homoprejudice remains a very real and present issue affecting every area of our society,” said van Vuuren in a statement.

He added that to date no progress has been made in the investigation as to who set the closet on fire.

RainbowUCT urged all members of the UCT community to participate in the protest by wearing pink and joining the society on Jameson Plaza at 1.45pm as it delivers a memorandum to university management.