Time for gender strides in firms, activists say

Many people around the world yesterday celebrated the World Health Organisation’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

“It’s important for people to remember that being a homosexual or transgender was considered a mental disorder,” said Ross Forgan, director and Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Pride chair.

“In South Africa, it’s important to remember, because being homosexual in this country was a crime in recent history. There is real danger in becoming complacent,” he said.

To raise awareness around the issue, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHTB) was created in 2004, to draw the attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics, according to may17.org.

Forgan said the gay community needed protection because hiding sexual orientation was easy and making a public stance on IDHOTB, helped remind people how far the community had come and memorialised the struggle it had taken to arrive here.

In this regard, NGOs have played a pivotal role – prominent activist Simon Nkoli being one of many.

According to South African History Online: “Nkoli was one of the first black anti-apartheid activists to publicly identify as gay and HIV-positive. He was diagnosed with HIV while in prison and went public with his status in the early ’90s – a time when HIV was stigmatised by white South Africans as divine retribution against homosexuality and perceived among black South Africans as a European disease.

“Within this political climate, Nkoli worked with various organisations to educate the populace and to destigmatise HIV/Aids.”

One of these organisations was the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (Glow), of which Nkuli was a founding member. It was the first multiracial gay-rights organisation in South Africa, the website states.

Glow organised South Africa’s first Gay Pride march in Johannesburg in 1990.

However, with constitutional protection now in place, it’s the corporates who now have real power to effect change.

Last year, The South African LGTB+ Management Forum launched the South African Workplace Equality Index (Sawei) to benchmark best practice across corporate South Africa, and identify opportunities to improve LGBT+ diversity and inclusion.

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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