The gay community is up in arms after a newspaper reported on Wednesday that drag queens will not be allowed to participate in this year’s Gay and Lesbian Pride parade in Johannesburg. Furthermore, several businesspeople claim they are still owed money from last year’s Pride festival, and a top advertising agency dropped the Pride publicity campaign for this year due to non-payment.
The parade, due to take place on September 25, forms part of a yearly week of celebrations — the biggest of its kind in South Africa.
According to The Citizen, authorities are citing the Regulation of Gatherings Act, which prohibits any person participating in a gathering, march or protest from wearing a disguise or mask that obscures facial features and therefore prevents identification.
The report quotes Johannesburg Metro Police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar as saying the decision was taken to ensure consistency and that no one in disguise or wearing a mask will be allowed to take part in the march.
This includes drag queens, because of their wigs and make-up.
In a statement sent to the Mail & Guardian Online late on Wednesday, the Equality Project said this law would also allow police to arrest rugby supporters with painted faces.
The statement says the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Pretoria’s OUT, Johannesburg’s Forum for the Empowerment of Women, Cape Town’s Triangle Project and the Durban Lesbian and Gay Health Centre have all stated that the interpretation by police of the Act is “blatantly unconstitutional as it unjustifiably limits a whole host of rights” and that the Act’s “purpose is to prevent individuals in a protest action being involved in criminal activity by concealing their identity”.
“It is quite apparent that [the Act] should be interpreted in the light of a decade of democracy and when read with the Constitution,” says the statement.
“The issue is not one of consistency, but rather one of interpreting and applying the law in line with the Constitution,” said Evert Knoesen, director of the Equality Project. “If this was indeed the case — to ensure consistency — then why have the past 14 Pride marches been conducted without any threat of possible arrests of drag queens?”
“The police are required to apply their mind when interpreting laws of this nature, as well as our Constitution, which is founded on fundamental values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms and which supersedes this Regulation of Gatherings Act, and was promulgated even before South Africans achieved their freedom in 1994,” Knoesen added.
Drag queens ‘pose no threat’
“Drag queens are an intrinsic part of our subculture and are a more visible and vocal element, and it is for this reason that many spectators actually attend the Lesbian and Gay Pride march. They pose no threat to society, and in fact many of them are full-time entertainers and enjoy a large and loyal following,” said Dawie Nel, director of OUT — a lesbian, gay and bisexual wellness organisation.
Nel also suggested the metro police could redirect their “misplaced enthusiasm and scarce resources” to a more beneficial end by “arresting thieves, rapists and murderers — thereby providing the service they should be”.
Wendy Isaacks, legal adviser of the Equality Project, said: “The safety, security and fundamental human rights of members of our community will not be compromised or undermined in any way during this year’s Pride march, or at any other time.”
Isaacks added that the Equality Project is “involved in dialogue with the mayor’s office to highlight the futility and inherent attack on basic human rights such an action by the metro police would signify”.
“Discrimination against lesbian and gay people violates the principles of equality and respect for inherent human dignity,” said Knoesen.
Publicity matters
Meanwhile, drag queens might be the least of the parade organisers’ worries.
According to Justin McCarthy, MD of TBWAGavinReddy, the advertising firm approached the Pride organisation proactively and volunteered to do the Pride publicity campaign on a commercial basis.
“As an organisation we support the rights of all individuals and organisation under the Constitution, as well as the principles of freedom of speech,” McCarthy told the M&G Online on Wednesday.
All the publicity work was completed and the firm was charging a “marginal basic recovery cost, heavily subsidising our standard rates”, McCarthy said. “Now they [Pride] are saying they were duped.”
He said Pride, represented by Gary Bath, maintained the work was pro bono, but he pointed out that the Pride organisers had signed a legally binding agreement that specified cost estimates — a “negligible amount”.
This disagreement led to McCarthy questioning the Pride organisation’s credibility and “pulling the plug” on the publicity campaign.
“We will not do business with an organisation that is not honourable and that is seemingly, for whatever reason, bringing Gay Pride into disrepute,” he said.
McCarthy expressed his willingness to continue reluctantly with the publicity campaign if Pride were to pay for his firm’s services, but added that he “would need an undertaking from them … there is a principle at stake … I would require some degree of undertaking that what appears to be exploitation, is not.”
Early on Wednesday evening, Paul Tilly of the Equality Project told the M&G Online that the organisation agreed to step in and pay for the Pride publicity campaign.
However, Tilly would not comment on the alleged behaviour of the Pride organisers.
Monetary woes
The Pride woes do not end there. According to a weekend newspaper report, a Johannesburg businessman is in the process of getting a court interdict to stop the Pride festival. He claims he is owed money from last year’s event.
The Saturday Star report says Moosa Daya, the owner of a party rental business, Queens Hiring, expressed dissatisfaction with the organisers of last year’s parade — Bath and Yusuf Abdullah of Pride Communications.
Daya said marquees and chairs were hired from his company for last year’s festival and his company “never got paid fully”. About R10 600 is still owed to him.
Furthermore, 80 portable toilets were hired from Rent-a-Loo for the festival, and R9 000 is still owed to this company.
Paul Potgieter, one of the partners in Rent-a-Loo, said a commitment was made by Pride Communications to pay instalments over December and January, but that never happened.
“We have joined a company called Debtec and handed this problem over to them. We’ll see if they can get anything out of them,” the Saturday Star quoted Potgieter as saying. “We have sent a letter to toilet companies, to warn them, just in case.”
Said Daya: “The tragedy is they are giving gays a bad name, and they are taking those poor guys [stallholders at the Pride festival] for a ride. They are charging stallholders for the stalls, and yet they themselves are not paying the suppliers.”
David Naidoo, owner of M&M Hiring, said he hired out equipment for the festival two years ago and still hasn’t been paid.
“They took me for R34 000 and up to now they have not paid.”
According to the newspaper report, Daya and Naidoo have both had difficulty in tracking down Bath, of Pride Communications.
When the Saturday Star contacted Bath, he referred the paper to his publicist, Sean Lucas.
Lucas subsequently e-mailed a statement to the paper: “I cannot at this time comment on the allegations … however, I do find that at such a time, the parties involved have chosen this platform to try and disrupt a LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and intersex] community event, which my client is organising. If Pride Communications incurred any debt, why would Queens and Rent-a-Loo take so long in coming forward?”
The statement continued: “Should this not be a matter for the courts or legal adviser to try and sort out? Mr Bath is not averse to resolving this matter as amicably and quickly as possible. What one should realise is that this event is for the LGBTI community and not about one person(s) in particular.
“This is the one day that the LBGTI [sic] community can take a stand for beliefs and fundamental human rights to celebrate, and we should not in any way try and distract from this focus, just because of a few parties who wish to use the press for their own personal ends.”
The M&G Online was unable to contact Bath and the Johannesburg Metro Police’s Minnaar on Wednesday.