Vibrant colours and pastel pinks mixed with ball gowns and tutus when members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community in Polokwane took to a march through the streets of the city on Saturday morning. Momentarily they diverted attention from challenges such as corrective rape and cultural and religious stigma that men and women of alternative gender orientation get subjected to.
Saturday’s march was part of the annual Limpopo Pride programme that created opportunity for, among others, a show of support by structures such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), the University of Limpopo and the Anova’s Health4Men initiative when participants later gathered in the park at Jack Botes hall.
Speaking to Polokwane Observer afterwards, LGBTI sector Limpopo Chairperson Cindy Maotoana stressed the lack of support for their programme, adding that organisations who gained from their presence in the province were not in attendance. Whereas they had intended to incorporate dialogue into the day’s programme which they initially planned to host at Jack Botes hall, they couldn’t do so as the daily rental was too expensive, she remarked. She raised the opinion that the municipality’s approach to rental of the facility was seen as not being community-friendly.
Turning to the issue of the onslaught against their members, she alluded to more homosexual men in Limpopo getting attacked and raped than lesbian women. The biggest problem in Polokwane posed to be a dark spot along Dahl Street adjacent to the cemetery where two to three homosexual men got raped every weekend. Some didn’t report the cases, she said.
In the crowd placards with slogans like “Killing us won’t make us heterosexual” promoted their grounds.
Another critical challenge their members faced was being disowned for their orientation and being shunned because of cultural and religious reasons, she said. In many instances parents withheld school fees or took kids out of school for their choices, Maotoana added.
Prior to joining the march DA Women’s Network (Dawn) leader Nomafrench Mbombo, who was in Limpopo for the day to join the parade as she did elsewhere in the country, in a brief interview said that after two decades of democracy there were still people discriminated against based on their sexual orientation and yet the Constitution was so clear on every right of every citizen. It was not on that people got subjected to corrective rape for their sexual orientation and families disowning their children because of love, she indicated. It was everyone’s choice to be who he or she wanted to be, she stressed as she highlighted support for the cause and creating awareness that LGBTI rights were human rights.
Mbombo, who is also Health MEC in the Western Cape, was accompanied by Dawn Provincial Chairperson and Parliamentarian Desiree van der Walt and DA Provincial Legislature Member Katlego Phala.
Story & photos: YOLANDE NEL
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