From: wsargeant@IGC.ORG (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:South Africa, Gays fighting for rights
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:02:48 GMT

/* Written 11:29 am  Apr 14, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:reg.safrica */
/* ---------- "Fighting for Rights" ---------- */
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Fighting for Rights

/* Written  8:59 pm  Apr 14, 1992 by peg:greenleft in cdp:greenleft.news */
Fighting for lesbian and gay rights in South Africa

By Norm Dixon

``In South Africa all issues are linked together. Homophobia is 
part of discrimination. We can not deal with it in isolation. We 
are trying to link our struggle with the struggle of the majority 
of the people against apartheid and racism'', Tseko Simon Nkoli 
explained in an interview with Green Left Weekly.

Nkoli is the coordinator of the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of 
Witwatersrand (GLOW) and works for the Township AIDS Project as 
an AIDS educator. He is also a member of the African National 
Congress.

``There are lots of lesbians and gay people in South Africa, 
especially in the big cities. Johannesburg happens to be called 
`the gay city' because lots of gay people move there from the 
other cities and from the countryside because it's quite liberal 
about homosexuality.''

But ``homosexuality is still a taboo'' in South Africa. ``People 
are still being suppressed'', Nkoli points out. Lesbian and gay 
people ``don't get jobs. [If] people `come out' at work, they get 
fired. At our last Gay Pride March, we had 27 people who were 
expelled from jobs because they had been seen on the march or had 
appeared on television or in the newspapers.''

South African law does not mention homosexuality directly. Gay 
men are arrested under laws which outlaw ``sodomy''. ``Last year 
380 people were charged ... and 90% of them were black people.''

While there are larger gay and lesbian groups that organise 
social and sports events, GLOW is the biggest political gay and 
lesbian organisation in Johannesburg. ``Our main work is to 
mobilise the lesbian and gay community to accept themselves, to 
come out within their own organisations, and to take up other 
issues, not only gay issues.''

GLOW's membership is 80% black. But this majority has been 
passive when it comes to campaigning for gay and lesbian rights 
within the broader political movement. ``We have only a few black 
people, mostly lesbians, who are very active in the ANC, the ANC 
Women's League and youth groups. The black gay men, however, do 
lots of work in AIDS education.''

After GLOW's formation in 1989, Nkoli said, ``we
discussed coming out within our organisations, because a lot of 
our people were members of the ANC and the Youth Congresses, but 
they were not known to be gay ... We managed to get some ANC 
activists, mainly the white gay men and women, to come out openly 
within the ANC.''

GLOW wrote letters to all political organisations asking their 
views on lesbian and gay rights. ``The ANC was very positive and 
supportive. The AZAPO [Azanian People's Organisation - an 
organisation that subscribes to the black consciousness ideas of 
the late Steve Biko] response was `as long as they keep 
themselves where they belong'. AZAPO plays an important role, but 
their response was not very good. The Communist Party was also 
good and supportive. The Pan Africanist Congress was also fine. 
The National Party said they do support us as long as we don't 
molest children. The AWB [the neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance 
Movement] said we could go to the nearest hell. The Conservative 
Party reminded us about what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.''

Nkoli was cautiously optimistic that a future ANC government 
would be sympathetic to the interests of gays and lesbians. 
``[The ANC] said once they are in power they will include 
everybody, including lesbian and gay people, in decision making. 
We were involved when they were drafting their [proposed] 
constitution for a post-apartheid South Africa. They came to us 
and said `we can not write it for you, we think you should do it 
yourself'. What we did then was to consult with other gay and 
lesbian groups. A survey was sent to find out what they would 
really like.

``We sent this even to rural areas. We got a very good response. 
All the gay organisations responded to the ANC call for 
contributions to their constitution.''

The ANC included the main demands of the gay and lesbian charter 
into a bill of rights which the ANC wants incorporated in the new 
constitution. It includes clauses which outlaw discrimination on 
the grounds of gender, single parenthood, legitimacy of birth or 
sexual orientation. It also puts a responsibility on the media, 
advertising and social institutions ``to discourage sexual and 
other types of stereotyping''.

The ANC national conference also committed itself to give AIDS a 
high priority. Each ANC branch was asked to appoint an AIDS 
officer and the ANC National Executive Committee to appoint a 
subcommittee on AIDS to work with other bodies in the field.

Nkoli added that ``we have to follow them up, we have to see to 
it that it is implemented. We have to continue battling.
``The ANC is not the only organisation. We should lobby other 
organisations more. We should continue organising, mobilising and 
fighting within these organisations. Even within the ANC there 
are lots of people who've got reservations and problems about 
homosexuality. It's a process.''

But should the ANC come to power and implement its promises on 
lesbian and gay rights ``we'd be the first country in the world 
where a political organisation has really involved lesbians and 
gays in drawing up the constitution of the country''.

The Gay and Lesbian Organisation of Witwatersrand can be 
contacted by writing to PO Box 23017, Joubert Park 2044, 
Johannesburg, South Africa.