Sexuality is about creativity and self-expression, and alternative sexualities should be celebrated, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Thursday.
”You should love who you are,” Tutu said in a film-clip message at the opening of the yearly Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha was also supposed to speak, but did not make it.
About 350 gays and lesbians of all races gathered for the festival.
”We are taking our place at the table,” said British filmmaker Rikki Beadle-Blair, who has presented films at the festival for the past three years.
He was referring to his discovery of more and more acceptance of gay culture every year he visits South Africa.
Festival organiser Nodi Murphy said the film shown on Thursday would be ”a coming-out story”.
”That’s why we run this festival every year.
”No heterosexual ever has to declare their sexuality to [the] world. We don’t want [homosexual] people to feel alone and scared.” — Sapa
The festival runs until April 3 at Cinema Nouveau in Johannesburg and from March 31 to April 17 at the V&A Waterfront Cinema Nouveau in Cape Town
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Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival