This year’s gay and lesbian pride parade, taking place on Saturday September 27, seems likely to be a rather low-key affair. Apart from a small film festival that began on September 18, there has been little publicity to promote the event. Information about the parade (an e-mail headed ”Gay Pride Festival”) reached the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday.
The lack of urgency may reflect the fact that the organisers were working according to dates on their own schedule and were under the impression that the event was taking place on October 27. A spokesperson assured the M&G that the parade is, in fact, happening on September 27.
There is also confusion around the name. ”Pride” is the only part of its title that has remained stable over the years. The word ”lesbian” has come and gone. First it was a march, then a parade, now it seems to be a ”festival” or ”fair day”. Perhaps that is to be expected of a parade that has evolved considerably in its 14 years of existence, from the protest politics of the early years to the party atmosphere of more recent parades. If it suffers a crisis of identity now and then (don’t the bisexuals want to get in on the title any more?), perhaps it is salutary — it is, or should be, all about identity.
The organisers expect about 20 000 marchers or paraders, and it should be a lot of fun. Especially if the reborn Christians are there to wave banners and Bibles at the Pride-goers.
It will be interesting to see, also, how many of those 20 000 are people of colour, now that the parade is firmly ensconced in the upmarket suburbs of Johannesburg.
The event begins and ends at Zoo Lake in Johannesburg, from where the march will start at around 11am. It will move through Saxonwold and Rosebank before returning to Zoo Lake for the ”fair” part of the day. There will be food, refreshment and merchandise stalls. An official Pride after-party will be held at Kulcha in Northcliff; tickets will be available at Pride.