The History of Pride

Cape Town Pride has grown in leaps and bounds since it became a regular event, but the significance of Pride is not always understood by many people who attend Pride. Many do not actually know about the origins of this annual celebration.

We have to go back 55 years. In the early-morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, members of the New York City Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn, a mafia-run gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood. While such raids were not uncommon at NYC gay bars at the time, what was unique on this night is that the patrons had decided to fight back. Angered by police harassment and social discrimination, the events of that night ignited six days of protests, known as the Stonewall Uprising, and galvanised the gay rights movement. By the time the Stonewall Riots ended on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went from being a fringe issue largely ignored by politicians and the media to front-page news worldwide.

The first Pride marches started the following year, on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the riots and demonstrate for equal rights. In New York, organisers dubbed their event the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. The same day as the NYC march, Los Angeles held a “Christopher Street West” celebration on Hollywood Boulevard that drew thousands. There were also two small marches in San Francisco and Chicago. These one-day celebrations eventually evolved into a full month of LGBTQ pride.

In time, that celebration came to be simply known as the Gay Pride Parade. According to activist Craig Schoonmaker, “I authored the word ‘pride’ for gay pride … [my] first thought was ‘Gay Power.’ I didn’t like that, so proposed gay pride. There’s very little chance for people in the world to have power. People did not have power then; even now, we only have some. But anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people, and produce the movement likely to produce change.”

On 1 July 1972, the first Pride march in the UK was organised by the Gay Liberation Front and Campaign for Homosexual Equality. The next year more cities in the United States and Europe began celebrating Pride. Today Pride is celebrated in hundreds of cities worldwide. In the Southern Hemisphere Pride celebrations tend not to be in June, but in the summer months. In South Africa, Pride is currently celebrated in Johannesburg,

Cape Town, Pretoria, Soweto, Ekhuruleni, Durban, Kimberly, Nelson Mandela Bay, Bloemfontein, Knysna, Delft, Hanover, Mahikeng, Hermanus and Worcester.

The roots of Pride in South Africa trace back to apartheid, when discrimination and persecution plagued marginalised communities, including the LGBTQ+ community. In the face of oppression, activists and allies began organising and mobilising to demand equality and acceptance. It was during this time that the first Pride marches emerged globally, serving as a symbolic platform to express visibility, solidarity and resilience.

The first Pride in South Africa was held on October 13, 1990. It was the first Pride event on the African continent, organised by the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW). Being gay or lesbian was illegal at the time, and it was also an anti-Apartheid protest. It coincided with the emerging Pride movement globally, serving as a symbolic platform to express visibility, solidarity and resilience. The march was a pivotal moment in South Africa’s LGBTQ+ rights movement. It eventually led to the inclusion of an equality clause in the South African constitution in 1996.

Johannesburg Pride, 1990

“With this march, gays and lesbians are entering the struggle for a democratic South Africa where everybody has equal rights and everyone is protected by the law: black and white; men and women, gay and straight.”

– Simon Nkoli, Johannesburg Pride, 1990

The speech made by activist Simon Nkoli, one of the organisers, at South Africa’s first Gay Pride March in 1990 was a significant moment in the Gay Movement of this country. “This is what I say to my comrades in the struggle when they ask why I waste time fighting for moffies. This is what I say to gay men and lesbians who ask me why I spend so much time struggling against apartheid when I should be fighting for gay rights. I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts of me into secondary or primary struggles. They will be all one struggle. In South Africa I am oppressed because I am a black man, and I am oppressed because I am gay. So, when I fight for my freedom, I must fight against both oppressions. All those who believe in a democratic South Africa must fight against all oppression, all intolerance, all injustice. With this march, gays and lesbians are entering the struggle for a democratic South Africa where everybody has equal rights and everyone is protected by the law: black and white; men and women, gay and straight.”

Cape Town Pride is the second longest running Pride event in South Africa. The first Pride March in Cape Town was held in 1993 and was organised by activists including Theresa Raizenberg, Midi Achmat, Zackie Achmat, Jack Lewis, and Bassie Nelson under the auspices of ABIGALE (Association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians). 550 people marched from District 6. The March stopped in Adderly St for a Kiss-In. Next stop was Parliament were participants chanted slogans in support of gay rights. The March ended in De Waal Park where speeches were made, after which a party with live entertainment ensued. Albie Sachs, speaking on behalf of the ANC, declared the park a “liberated area “for all Capetonians, where homophobia and race discrimination had been banished. Edwin Cameron spoke about the implications of the inclusion of a prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation clause in the Bill of Rights. Simon Nkoli spoke on behalf of GLOW (Gays and Lesbians of the Witwatersrand), and Bassie Nelson for ABIGALE.

However, the first pride held under the auspices of the Cape Town Pride Festival was celebrated in December 2001. The following year Pride merged with the Mother City Queer Project (MCQP) but reverted to an independent event after that. No Pride event was held in 2003. In 2004, the timing of the Festival was moved to February, which is the height of the summer season in the Western Cape. In its two decades of existence, Cape Town Pride has evolved from a small Pride March with an afterparty in the streets of de Waterkant to an annual three-week Festival, culminating in the Cape Town Pride Parade and Mardi Gras, attended by thousands of local and international LGBTIQ+ community members and allies.

As Pride Month has grown in popularity across the globe, criticism of the events has grown, too. Many believe that the original ethos of Pride has been lost. Some believe that Pride is too political, other that it is not political enough. But Pride is what you make it. Pride can be both a Party and a Protest! For many a young queer person, attending Pride is often their first overt political act of their life. Pride events are often vital protests against repression and isolation in places such as Serbia, Turkey and Russia, where Pride parades have been met with antigay violence. Growing homo-prejudice and transphobia, which accompany the growth of far-right movements in Europe and North America highlights the oppression the LGBTQ+ community still faces globally. In Africa, 30 of the 54 states in the African Union outlaw homosexuality.

Pride celebrations have evolved beyond mere parades and festivities; they have become a platform for education, awareness and advocacy. In Cape Town, there is an increasing emphasis on promoting inclusivity, representation and intersectionality. Pride events serve as a reminder of how far the LGBTQ+ community has come while acknowledging that the struggle for equality is far from over for many.

While South Africa has made significant strides towards LGBTQ+ equality, many individuals still face discrimination, violence and prejudice due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Hate crimes, stigma and social barriers persist, and the struggle for acceptance continues.

Pride is not only a celebration but also a call to action to address these ongoing challenges and work towards a more inclusive society.

Images and archival information about the 1993 Cape Town Pride March courtesy of ABIGALE Collection, GALA Queer Archive.