Check out this week’s feature article from Mvume Ndima, our 041Culture columnist, as he delves into the exciting ILGA World Conference in Cape Town. This landmark event brings together global LGBTQAI+ activists to reflect on progress, share stories, and strategize for the future. Mvume shares his personal insights on the LGBTQIA+ community, his thoughts on South Africa’s pivotal role in this movement, and how organizations like ILGA continue to pave the way for acceptance. It’s a must-read for anyone passionate about equality and social justice.
The week of 11-15 November 2024 sees the city of Cape Town (boo) host the ILGA World Conference. A collection of the world’s foremost gay, lesbian, queer, and other activists and changemakers, gathering together to share their wins, detail their pasts and plot the way forward for the community as a whole.
The 2024 edition of the conference represents a triumphant return to the continent after 25 years of avoiding the greatest continent on Earth.
If you’re anything like me, you have no idea what the ILGA is or what it actually does. Luckily, they were gracious enough to invite us as the 041 Magazine to a Zoom meeting to learn about their organization a week before the start of the conference to explain what the whole week-long conference is all about. I was lucky enough to attend.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA) is, in essence, a human rights-facing organization with a focus on LGBTQAI+ people in countries where non-traditional sexual orientation itself is a crime.
The remote meeting held on Thursday 07/11/2024 was the ILGA’s chance to tell us about themselves, and what their plans are for the meeting, and gave us, as journalists a chance to ask them questions about where they see themselves going and what their plans are for the week-long event.
Chaired by Daniel Paletta and featuring panelists, Julia Ehrt, Liberty Matthys, Lentsu Nohabelang, Jefferey O’Malley, Mogau Makitha, and Ymania Brown sat with us and as the press to give us an inside look at the organization and their plans for the new week.
I was excited just to be in the “room”, and excited to hear what was going on in that colourful corner of our society.
I have always found myself befriending queer people throughout my life. I can’t explain it, but they just like me and I like them. To this day I have friends and loved ones who identify as anything other than “straight” and these interactions have coloured my views on the community and made it hard for me to believe the “gay agenda” narrative that many straight men believe in. Seeing individuals struggle with their identity, come out, go waaaaaaay overboard then settle into their true identity over time tells me that there’s no way these people are part of some nefarious cabal of shady individuals who aim to create a world of queer people… they’re just people, trying to figure it out just like you or me.
I’m often called “problematic” because I don’t necessarily pick my words carefully when speaking to members of the community, one time almost being fought for referring to gay men as “gay ass niggas” to a person’s face (Sorry Siya) or fighting a gay dude who wouldn’t stop trying to kiss me after repeatedly telling him “no” that has only happened one time in my life to be clear, and that person didn’t do that because he was gay, he did it coz he was a rapist and him being gay might be a good thing since he’s trying to take advantage of people who can physically fight back and as mentioned in prior columns, these hands don’t discriminate okay???
I move primarily on curiosity and genuine interest. But its a balancing act of keeping respectful while speaking normally to a person like they’re a person and not a sideshow freak.
Now, back to the ILGA meeting. Because I’ve never been shy about making the room uneasy for the sake of gaining information, I asked the panellists how they felt about the results of the recent elections in the USA and if they felt that their lives could potentially be impacted negatively by season 2 of the Donald Trump show. The short answer was yes, they feel like it could get a little shaky in the community with that man in charge. I don’t know enough about US politics to have an opinion on that.
The next question I wanted to ask, was the question of South Africa’s role in the movement. You see, South Africa is a crazy place… Did you know we never had to fight for same-sex marriage in this country? Like it never happened. Basically, since black people have been able to smash or pass on any person of any race we wanted (thank you Madiba), queer bodies have had the same rights to marry and associate like anyone else could. We are one of the leading nations in providing gender-affirming care to trans people. And yet… Homophobia is still a huge thing in this country too. The AWB hasn’t disbanded, they just rebranded, we still have real-deal Nazis in this country, any time you see a whole lot of orange just know… and our flag is kind of the perfect pictograph of our nation’s culture and opinions.
A beautiful tapestry of races, languages, genders, and cultures. Bright and beautiful on their own and even more gorgeous when combined like a Ndebele pattern design, but divided and forced into straight, hard lines and sharp angles that keep us separated.. the black triangle, cut off from the green, lush land that our country has in abundance and enclosed in a golden wall touched only by a small percentage of the triangle… the bloodshed to achieve our freedom and the blue skies and waters that envelop us, studiously guarded by the thin white line that encloses the land in its unbroken, consistency, holding the blood of our lost soldiers on their heads and keeping those skies and waters underfoot. South Africa as a nation is a gay icon that simultaneously harbors hate and disdain for marginalized communities.
South Africa welcomes and embraces queer bodies, allowing you to be your biggest, baddest, and gayest self.. and yet the M-word (our homophobic slur that rhymes with coffee) is still very much in the lexicon of most South Africans.
We love people like Lasizwe and Somizi, and Sade Giliberti’s fine ass (if you didn’t grow up watching YoTV you wouldn’t understand) but we still have a culture and history of targeted violence against members of the community, acts like corrective rape (custom rape is absolutely insane) and sometimes just straight up murders haven’t stopped happening just because we stopped hearing about it.
Organizations like ILGA are so important for the next generation of queer boys, girls, and others who are unable to live in their truth, who feel afraid to be themselves, and who are in that weird phase before they come to terms with their sexuality.
Panelist Ymania Brown said it best in her section when she said that she is who she is because she stands on the shoulders of giants, the work done in the years before has paved the way for her to have the life she has today. The ILGA is the next stepping stone on the way to acceptance. It is the next step on the way to an equal and free society, something I think we would all love to see in our lifetime.
Real quick, rest in peace to Quincy Jones, another problematic ally (hate that word) while he never came out and said he was gay or bi-sexual, his contribution to the soundtrack of gay society can not be understated or ignored, outing Richard Prior and Marlon Brando notwithstanding, music will never be the same without that man’s ear.
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