Johannesburg | Sunday
SOME 2 000 gays and lesbians took to the streets of Johannesburg Saturday for South Africa’s 12th annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, celebrating tolerance and lamenting lives lost to Aids.
Acting Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron told his fellow marchers — bedecked in sequins, stiletto heels and slogans like “God loves us to bits” — that they represented all of South Africa’s diverse cultures.
“Do not be ashamed of living with Aids, those who must be ashamed are those who try and stigmatise those of us with the virus.” – Acting Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron “Gathered today, we have gay people of every colour and language and some are parents and some are children of gay parents. We represent the nation as a whole and we can be proud to be South African,” he said.
Cameron, who has Aids, added that South Africans should not be ashamed of living with the disease or the HIV virus, which it is estimated afflicts one in nine people in the country.
“Do not be ashamed of living with Aids, those who must be ashamed are those who try and stigmatise those of us with the virus.
“Even worse are those people who seem to ignore that we are facing an epidemic,” he said, in a possible reference to President Thabo Mbeki, who has questioned the link between HIV and Aids.
The marchers observed a minute of silence for victims of Aids, which activists claim to be the leading cause of death in South Africa.
The parade, with its now familiar pink-festooned floats, became an institution several years before the end of apartheid.
This year it took place a day after the Johannesburg High Court ruled that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children, something the marchers celebrated as proof that society has become more tolerant. – AFP