From Pride to Political Funeral: Gay AIDS Activism, 1990–1994

Abstract

On an overcast October morning in 1990, a multiracial crowd had assembled at the Johannesburg offices of the South African Institute for Race Relations. They were about to embark on South Africa’s first lesbian and gay pride march. Nelson Mandela had been released from his 27-year incarceration only eight months earlier, and the country’s political leaders were in the midst of complex deliberations to create a democratic constitutional order. The political transition which was underway enabled a demonstration like pride to be held. Unprecedented opportunities were also becoming available for advocacy for gay rights to be recognized in a new South African constitution which was then under negotiation.