A colourful October for Pride month
Reminiscing, he said when he attended the pride parade he felt an immense sense of excitement.
Our favourite businessman and gay activist Thami Kotlolo aka Thami Dish was colourful and proud at Truffles On the Park in Sandown on 8 October.
At a scrumptious lunch interview, Dish shared with us the importance of Pride Month in South Africa this October.
“I think for me more than anything, Pride Month should be viewed as a month where people can table a lot of discussions around queer existence. I think Pride Month was meant to be for more visibility for all members of the LGBTQI+ community,” he said.
It’s a month to come out and celebrate the diverse existence of the queer community. Reminiscing, he said when he attended the pride parade he felt an immense sense of excitement.
“For me when I remember pride back then, when it was still at Zoo Lake, I was so young and going to march was exhilarating. We had placards, memorandums and everything to try get our message heard.”
And that message is one of inclusion, diversity and transformation.
“You know we talk about inclusivity a lot of the time – at work, government talks about it, organisations talk about it. But inclusivity and diversity is not a lived experience for queer people.”
Many people are not educated enough about the queer community and so some spaces are presented as unsafe, he added. Months like these help to get the right information out and it also helps corporates and the public sector hold discussions about what transformation should look like in an inclusive organisation.
However, he said in more recent times society had become more open-minded.
“People are a little bit more open now to seeing things, not just in black and white, but in colour. We would like our core struggles understood, to reach a point where we actually are really completely equal.”
To commemorate the month, Dish and a few other colourful members raised the rainbow flag atop Constitutional Hill on 5 October.
“Personally for me, raising this flag symbolises that we are here, proudly, to celebrate LGBTIQ+ rights as part of South African society. “Many of our community face abuse and homophobia on a daily basis, and this flag reminds everyone that our constitution demands more, our constitution demands inclusion, dignity, respect and equality for everyone.”
Celebrate the diverse existence and learn new experiences in colour this pride month.
