Johannesburg Pride Boycotted for ‘Homophobic’ Performer and ‘Elitist’ Venue
The announcement of rapper Cassper Nyovest as one of the performers didn't go down well with some LGBTQI+ members.
This year's Johannesburg Pride march is taking place this Saturday. But some members of the LGBTQI+ community aren't impressed. Firstly, it's the uptown venue Melrose Arch, which some members feel isn't in line with the realities of the community the march is supposed to serve.
Speaking to HuffPost SA, LGBTQI+ activist Sekoatlane Phamodi, said, "The refusal of the organizers to engage more deeply and meaningfully with the political history and function of Pride events is not surprising."
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Phamodi added that the event "has been commercialized and exploited in a pink-washing project by white-supremacist capitalists who serve the interests of other white, wealthy men who occupy a political identity by saying we 'serve' the LGBTQI community, and who celebrate the advancement they have made to the exclusion of those who haven't been included."
The announcement of rapper Cassper Nyovest as one of the performers also didn't go down well with some LGBTQI+ members.
Performance artist Siya Ngcobo, in a Facebook post, labeled the rapper as being part of "a larger network of misogynist/homophobic rappers."
Johannesburg Pride organizers defended their choice of venue in an interview with HuffPost SA. The website quoted Johannesburg Pride chairperson Kaye Ally saying, "There is a different kind of pride associated with being in a world-class complex such as Melrose Arch... it lets Pride have the same quality as [those in] New York, San Francisco [and] London."
