Students will stage an anti-homophobia protest at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on Thursday following what they term “hate crimes” against homosexuals at the institution.
Anti-homophobia activists at the university are up in arms after a pink closet on display at UCT’s Jameson Plaza — symbolising lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights on campus — was set alight on Monday.
The remains of the closet will be left undisturbed until the end of Pink Week ‘to serve as a memorial of sorts to those who have suffered injustices and lost their lives at the hands of homophobia and homoprejudice”, head of Rainbow UCT, Dylan van Vuuren, told the Mail & Guardian.
“The closet was the main feature of our pride week [October 4 to 8] and we wanted people to discourse with issues affecting the LGBT community,” Van Vuuren said.
“Burning down the closet is a shocking hate crime and has cut off the discourse around the issues completely. So we will be making our voices heard on the matter at the pink protest.”
The group has urged students to dress in pink and come out in their numbers to show solidarity with the LGBT community on campus. They will also deliver a memorandum to the university management outlining their concerns.
In a statement released on Wednesday, UCT management expressed its full support for the Pink Week celebrations and said an investigation in to the incident was ongoing.
Dr Max Price, the vice-chancellor of UCT, said: “One would have hoped that the rights of LGBT are accepted and one need only celebrate that right, rather than still fight for it.
“However, it seems there are still people who do not acknowledge some rights embedded in our Constitution and that we definitely still have a lot of work to do to in this regard.”
This is not the first time that awareness campaigns by Rainbow UCT have come under attack. In 2007, the group erected the closet on campus but it was defaced with homophobic graffiti.
Said Van Vuuren: “There have always been subliminal homophobic actions in society and UCT is not exempt, but nothing to this degree.
“This is just a reminder that we cannot just celebrate rights but also have to fight for them, even at a supposed safe haven for liberal ideas such as UCT.”
Van Vuuren added that in the unlikely event of the perpetrators being caught they should not be expelled but rather ordered to do some sort of community service where they can interact with the LGBT community.
He also suggested that the university actively contribute to the fight against homophobia by introducing “intensive sensitivity training for new hostel residents and in its orientation programme”.