PEOPLE’S PRIDE MASS MEETING
The planning team behind the People’s Pride event in Johannesburg set for 5 October invite you to a mass meeting on Saturday 17 August to update the community on their progress.
The volunteer team has been working hard to put together a Pride march that “is conscientised and rooted in the continued fight for social change and justice”.
There will be an opportunity to hear feedback and to find out more about the movement.
The event will also include lunch, entertainment, a chance to mingle and a guided walk on the route they have identified for the parade.
You’ve been urged to:
• Bring a friend
• Bring your plain t-shirt for free printing
• Bring a small donation for the cause (if you can)
• Dress comfortably for the route
• Be ready for some fun!
Video footage and photographs will be taken throughout the course of the day.
From 10am to 6pm at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. Visit the Facebook event page here.
Boycott the LGBTI Pride Events in Gauteng: Unity in Diversity
The present divisions that exist around Gay Pride are a cause for great concern. The debates that have arisen should have been examined and resolved to achieve positive outcomes. This has not been the case and now we are expected to support a number of Pride events.
The gay community is diverse. While the acronym LBGTI is apt, we encompass people of all political persuasions – anti-capitalist to socialist; those for gay marriage and/or civil unions and others against; atheists; agnostics and believers; and an array of intelligences and professions among other differences.
I have always seen Pride as a celebratory protest. It is a day where we remind the world that we exist in all our diversity.
My view is that future organisers of this event should find ways of harmonising these differences in one event. Allow a platform for all so that it can be both a march and a parade. We need to acknowledge that the fight is not over, but also that we can be happy in our being.
I would like to suggest we call for the formal recognition of National LGBTI Pride Day which would take place within a National LGBTI Pride Month (as is the case with Youth Day; Women’s Day etc.)
I therefore want to recommend that we boycott this year’s events until all the various organisers meet and learn to work together.