Date:         Wed, 6 Jul 1994 12:09:07 EDT

[ Send replies, comments, etc to barry.burland@digitec.co.za only ]

South Africa steps out of the closet

Following hot on the heels of the adoption of the first constitution
in the world to specifically prohibit discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation, South Africa is currently enjoying its first gay
and lesbian film festival. The festival is all the more remarkable
considering that just six months ago gay and lesbian material was
still being banned under the old censorship laws.

Appearing on screen is a retrospective of Derek Jarman's works. In
addition, Barbara Hammer, Greta Schiller, David Haughland and Isaac
Julien are in the country to discuss their works, also showing.

The festival is playing in the four major metropolitan areas of the
country: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. Houses have
been full. There has been significantly more media coverage, across
the spectrum but generally favourable, than of all previous activism
combined. If the Festival was intended to make us more visible, it has
been an oustanding success.

A few weeks ago at the opening of the first democratic Parliament,
President Nelson Mandela specifically endorsed the protections the
consitution offers for gay and lesbian people.

At the opening of the Festival in Johannesburg, Jesse Duarte, the new
Minister of Safety and Security (that is, the police) in the PWV (a
new province, basically the greater Johannesburg area, which houses
sixty percent of the population), confirmed the point:

"Not only are their legal injustices to be done away with, but
mindsets and cultures have to be done away with too. It is one thing
for you to have your rights and equality in the law, it is quite
another to have them each day in the street, at work, in the bar, in
public places where you socialise and where you cruise."

It was announced that Minister Duarte had offered herself as a patron
on the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW), the
largest and first mass-based, non-racial lesbigay organisation in the
country. We look forward to seeing her lead the fifth annual pride
march through Johannesburg later this year. :)