Over 20,000 people marched through Johannesburg on Saturday, October 28 to commemorate Pride, singing, dancing and showing their support clearly for the LGBTQ+ communities across Africa who could not live their sexuality safely and whose relationships were illegalised.
Recall that the Ugandan government had introduced one of the world’s severest anti-gay laws in May, including the death penalty for “exacerbated homosexuality”.
Note that same-sex relations had already been outlawed (same as in over 30 African countries) prior to the anti-gay law being announced in Uganda.
However, South Africa, in contrast, had made same sex marriage legal in 2006 and is only African country to have done so.
The Johannesburg Pride organiser, Kaye Ally, had said that the aim of the march was in support of the LGBTQ+ community in Uganda and in other African countries who could not march or freely express themselves.
At the 2022 Pride, South Africa’s first since the COVID-19 pandemic, was somber after the U.S. government warned of a possble terrorist attack beforehand.
The incident only served to heighten the LGBTQ+ community’s desire for this year’s event, held 34 years after the initial one, according to Ally.
