Hi Mr Zeelie Amen , what you saying it’s true blaming n pointing finger wont change the matter at hand (uniting LGBTI community)…people must learn to deal with their issues and stop planting their dirty minds in other…am a Pretorian my self from township called Soshanguve and am telling you the first time i attended Pride in Zoo lake 2012 i had so much fun , the was no racial , culture issues cause we partied with people of all race , had my own food drinks , food and all no fence has stopped me from having fun….

Typical Marxist Postmodernist approach. Why build anything new when you can just tear down the existing social structures and leave society a blasted wasteland? Look how well that’s worked in the rest of Africa.

True Beth, and I’m also going to Sandton Pride as well, no fence should ever divide us, I mean, everyone deserve some #HomoLove if there’s division… I’m breaking the walls/going over the fence, whatever the case may be. It’s MY Pride.

The first Pride Parade was not solely initiated by Simon Nkoli. Mr Khan could find this out were he to do a little basic research from works that are easily available. furthermore, that event which, because of his age, I suspect mr Khan didn’t attend, could ahrdly be described as the happy gathering of the like-minded and ideologically unified, that Mr Khan depicts in his soemwhat inaccurate “utopian” representation./The authors’ claim that the “only way forward” is for “gay people” to be informed, is a little naive, something that becomes ever more apparent in their statment that through information we would avoid “repeating history.” What these authors advocate is itself a repetition of history. Many of us have not advocated information, but supplied it over more years than we care to remember. A crucial feature, largely ignored by the authors, is that from its inception through until the passage of the Civil Union Act, “gay people” had a unifying AIM. this was already crumbling around 1998/9 when the Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, a paper tiger that had punched way above its weight, started falling apart. Without the driving force of this organization, and without the goal of the removal of discriminatory legislation, there was indeed very little to unite LGBTI people. //It is ahrd, if not impossible, to envisage a “united front” amongst LGBTI citizens after the early 2000s. IS this a bad thing? Not necessarily. The fracas in Jan smuts avenue which the authors allude to, made this disunity very graphically and very disruptively. To posit a Pride Parade on the basis of alleged shared interests between LGBTI people is completely misguided, in that it fails to understand the current realities of what was always ONLY an “imagined community.” This logical flaw is at the ehart of the authors’ analysis and inflicts cardiac arrest on their major claim.// I am not sure if the authros HAVE much exposure to younger LGBTI people? They, like the majority of their elders, display a (shocking) lack of political interest. “Information” is unlikely to spur these people into anything one could accurately call political engagement. Nor is it likely that they would be roused by a specifically LGBTI-focused political interest.// The proliferation of “Prides” in Gauteng is not necessarily a sign of divisiveness in itself. it is “good” that local communities see and hear of the presence of LGBTI citizens in their midst. Far better than simply seeing the standard picture of a man in drag pictured at Zoo Lake, and tucked into some section of the Sunday Times./ If only the authors themselves were a little better informed, a little more astutely critical.

Dear Frans-Petrus,

I believe that you are mistaking are approach to systemic injustice to hatred for a race. I don’t hold any adverse feelings to any particular group. That being said, when talking about systemic injustice – I believe it is important to talk about (and to groups in positions of privilege). I do that in my work with queer/trans communities – by engaging heterosexual people and heteronormative practices. I know feminist activist do this through critiques of men, and anti-racist activist through critiques of the way systemic racism manifest. Engaging systemic racism would mean having tough conversations about whiteness and blackness (and other races) and social/economic/cultural concepts. When I engage whiteness, it is on this level.

I base my opinion on ideas explored in the followings texts (these are basic reads, and I could share more critical texts if you so wish).

On defining white privilege: link to amptoons.com
On things to reflect on before trying to speak about race: link to thefrisky.com

On the current politics of white privilege in South Africa:
link to theguardian.com

On who owns what and race in South Africa:
link to mg.co.za

On income and race in South Africa:
link to mg.co.za

On who own most of SA:
link to businesstech.co.za

More on the SA white privilege debate:
link to mg.co.za

I also wrote an article a while ago about how this goes down in the ‘gay’ community:link to mambaonline.com Let mw know what you think

I don’t expect conversations about the complex ways race, class, gender and sexuality converge to be easy. It is ok to feel challenged by these ideas. I urge you to engage these texts, to reflect on the way inequality currently manifests in South Africa and to get back to me. I am always open to open and frank conversations about systemic injustice. This is how I show love, through challenging injustice.

Revolutionary love and hugs,
Gabriel

Sanam,

What is that you suggest the gay Prides do to make it less racially divided? Because you seem that the general function of Pride is only in favor of whites. So place your clearly thought through suggestions here and I’m sure somewhere a Pride event will gladly try to implement it. We are listening.