2ND JOBURG PEOPLE’S PRIDE TARGETS HATE CRIMES

The Pride event launched last year in response to unhappiness with the organisation of Johannesburg Pride will have its second outing in November.

The Joburg People’s Pride Movement (JPP) said that its march will take place on Saturday, 29 November 2014. Starting at 10 in the morning, the procession will kick off from Constitution Hill and proceed through the streets of Braamfontein and Hillbrow.

Contrary to the expectations of some, the 2013 march through the inner city was a safe, well-received and well-attended event.

After returning to Constitution Hill at around 13:00, the organisers will host a post-march event until 17:00.

Entrance is free and Pride-goers are welcome to bring their own picnic baskets, camping chairs and cooler boxes.

JPP said that it moved the date from October to November to coincide with the international 16 Days of Activism against gender violence campaign, which is held annually from November 25 (International Day Against Violence Against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day).

The organisers explained in a statement that this was intended “to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human rights.”

They stated that, “Our movement recognises that lesbian, gay and gender non-conforming people are subject to violence and even more so when such situations intersect with a person’s race and economic standing.

“With yet another recent spate of rapes, murders and killings of LGBTI people in South Africa, JPP has decided to address and unpack the issue of hate crimes and gender based violence,” it added.

The event has differentiated itself from some of Gauteng’s other Prides by taking a more direct and political approach; linking LGBTI equality to other struggles for equal rights.

JPP said that it “deliberately raises awareness about and drives a political programme of working against all forms of systemic oppression and inequality through protest action, political education and movement building.

“We reject a Johannesburg Pride that does not address the socio-political realities faced by all LGBTI individuals in communities across our country and our continent,” insist the organisers.