CAPE TOWN PRIDE TURMOIL
In a shock move, some activist groups have organised an alternative Pride event out of unhappiness with the current organisers of the Cape Town Pride Festival, which is set to take place from February 19 to March 1.
The split between Cape Town Pride and these activists appears to have been rooted in the choice, by the current Pride board, of the Pride 2009 theme: “Pink Ubuntu. Jou ma se Pride.”
In December last year, the theme was slated by a number of activist organisations, led by Triangle Project, as being insensitive and hurtful towards women and people of colour. (‘Jou ma se Pride’ is a play on an insult commonly associated with the Cape’s coloured community.)
At the time, the board defended the theme on that basis that it was a “quintessentially localised Cape Town” term and that the LGBTI community should take ownership of offensive terminology; such as has been done with the word “queer”.
Nevertheless, under continued pressure, the Pride board recently decided to drop the ‘Jou ma se Pride’ phrase from the theme in order to appease the organisations.
While the activists welcomed the move, and said that they hoped “that this action is the harbinger of a new era of Cape Town Pride and community partnership”, they have nevertheless decided to go ahead with an alternative “fringe” Pride event over the same period as Cape Town Pride.
“The heart of the issue [with Cape Town Pride organisers] remains for us a lack of gender and cultural awareness, unhelpful official responses to the call for change, deeply held questions of accessibility, and the need for broader vision in planning an event which celebrates the Pride of all in Cape Town,” said the activists in a statement issued today.
The decision to undertake a fringe Pride festival came out of “a stance of critical loyalty to the ideal of a Pride celebration accessible to and aware of all Capetonians…” The statement was supported by Triangle Project, Good Hope Metropolitan Community Church, IGLHRC and Engender.
Glenn de Swardt, the Chairperson of Cape Town Pride was shocked to learn of the development when contacted by Mambaonline, describing the move by the activist groups as “a sad day for queer politics in Cape Town”.
He said that the board, which consists of a group of volunteers, had done all it could to include everyone in the community.
“We actively invited individuals from these organisations to participate. Our AGM is open to everyone to volunteer and it was widely advertised 21 days in advance and only one organisation bothered to send a representative to that,” said De Swart.
He further insisted that the board had never been directly approached by the groups about their concerns and the board itself was forced to approach the activists when he learnt that an active campaign to discredit the 2009 theme was already underway.
De Swart said that the information being disseminated by the groups was “highly filtered and highly biased” and that the groups were seemingly intent on splitting the LGBT community in Cape Town. “They must have a hidden agenda,” he added.
De Swart said that due to the imminent demands of the event, which is set to kick off on Monday, the board would not be able to deal with the matter until the close of the festival.
The Pride Fringe Festival events will be free of charge and open for all to attend. Events will range from seminars on sexual health, personal development workshops, various parties and events commemorating victims of hate crime.
A panel discussion on the topic of the “Jou ma se Pride” theme will also be held on February 25 at the Art Café, UCT Lower Campus, Rondebosch at 6.30pm.
How silly!. This is all so crazy! What does Triangle actually want? I live in Cape Town and have been following this story and I agree with De Swardt, it seems as if Triangle are intent on causing hassles and a split in the community. How sad to see a wealthy, over-resourced gay organisation that should be fighting homophobia turn on the Pride board who have always done a fantastic job. Maybe this should be taken to Triangle donors? Are they aware where their money is being spent? To Triangle I say rather focus on doing real productive work, you used to be a great organisation but you lost the plot somewhere. Jou ma se driehoekie!
Well let’s see what if anything the Triangle Politburo comes up with, or whether it will have any effect on the attendances at Cape Town Pride. I somehow doubt it. Get over it. Pride bowed to pressure and dropped the “Jou Ma Se Pride” tag line, and yet they are still belly aching over it. Seems Pride can’t win. Last year some of these over-funded, self-satisfied organisations objected to the drag queens & muscle Marys who were part of the Parade. This year it’s the theme. What will it be next year? So sorry your humourless, politically correct sensibilities were offended, but we don’t need your Neo-Puritanism. Get over you victim mentality. As if these organisations have nothing better to do than squabble with other moffies. Excuse me, but am I allowed to use such a derogatory, hurtful word to describe homosexuals? Maybe we should focus on preventing known homophobes from becoming the next President of the country. What a fucking waste of energy!
What Turmoil?. Your Headline is misleading: There is no turmoil @ Cape Town Pride, only in the vacant heads of some so-called activists. This is a storm in a teacup
By all accounts the real turmoil is at Triangle who have internal problems with their board resigning and their staff being unhappy so they are trying to bully other organisations in the Cape so that they will still look strong in the region.
wazzup?. i know for a fact that CT Pride offered triangle a seminar during the pride festival and they rejected it, so wazzup with triangle wanting to organise their own seminar? jeez guys you’re being petty and rediculous and shooting your own credibility in the foot. VIVA PRIDE and lotsa luck for your coming festival, count me in!
Koeksusters. It just takes one dusty crusty old dyke with a feminist stance who hasn’t had any real fun in her life to try to mess things up for others and that’s what the Triangle Project has become, a hot-bed of aggro feminist dykes – more worried about “Jou Ma Se” than about HIV and AIDS, homophobia, poverty or anything else. Go get a life you sour old koeksusters. Or do you want to start a campaign against the word koeksuster now?
I’m just one proud coloured moffie in Cape Town and I want to know what gives these people who call themselves activists the right to speak for me? I liked the theme the way it was. And then also who is this Marlon Valentine and Dale somebody who call themselves prominent activists? I never heard of them. Triangle julle jaag kak aan – enough is enough, you just trying to make trouble.
Proud?. We get carried away with the more serious issues in life. Unfortunately this article reflects the voice more of the one party and not both… many people can reach a conclusion based on this article and the others. It’s not about speaking on your behalf or knowing what your needs are but standing up for a community in need who has addressed their concerns and issues. Marlow and Dale arent the only 2 people who have worked on an alternative program but there’s a bigger committee which involve several organisations so no need to throw your anger at these 2 people who have merely represented the views of many.
Hey this really sucks – Marlon and his mates refused to ever join Pride but then they come up in a sneaky way and try to saboutage Pride because they don’t like the theme – and then they play the race card. How very pathetic. If you not there to get involved and ignore all the invites then shut the fuck up. And who the hell is this Dale twerp anyway, he calls himself a ‘prominent activist’ in the newspaper? No one I spoke has ever heard of him. So as of right now I’m also an activist, not just a plain old garden-variety activist, I am now a ANTI-DRIEHOEKIE-KOEKIE ACTIVIST! And I am starting an NGO, to get donor money I can waste and I can sit around and arrogantly cause kak….
Like the Pride man said this is a sad (and pathetic) day for gays in Cape Town.
Typical. Once something gets going the politics also gets going. Who cares anyway?
You ma se pride. Gees this break away group – who were not clearly identified – sure know how to spoil a great time of the year for the gay community….. LIGHTEN UP GUYS…. stop playing the victum in every thing just because you are gay!!! This is a load of crap and these people should get a life. Glen and his team are doing a amazing job….. funny thing is Glen use to be involved in The Triangle project….. hmmm sounds to me like sour grapes or something….
I also couldn’t help recalling that Glen walked out of Triangle Project last year after being the only person that seemed to be doing anything worthwhile there, and since then they are floundering about. Mmmmmm….
Bad form Triangle Project, but let’s see where this goes. As the saying goes: give them enough rope….
You ma se Pride. Hi there,
It’s a pitty this article reflects the voice of Cape Town Pride only and not both parties.
However, what I know, there was several attempts with the Cape Town Pride board. Many individuals raised their concerns on deaf ears and they have then turned to community based organisations and trust me Triangle is not the only one so need to wrestle Triangle.
This is not about spoiling your fun or anyone else’s and neither did we want to have a seperate event. We have raised our concerns regarding the Pride theme as well as pride being too commercialised and not accessible for many people especially those who come from futher communities like the Cape Flats and Townships.
Non of Cape Town Pride’s events are community based and to be honest if you check the pride schedule, mostly all the events are social parties and money money money.
What happened to sending out a message? Many people don’t even know why we do Pride because all they see are drag queens and topless men. What happen to fighting for our rights and equality? 15 years into democracy and we still have issues we face on a dialy basis. What happened to educating the broader community?
This is how the fringe events came into place so we can have something more serious for example comemorating victims of hate, include rural communities in workshops etc. I think we have a fabulous programme to cater for everyone irrespective of race, religion, wealth and hopefully this is something which can be incorporated in Pride 2010.
We need to be realistic about Pride. Not everyone can afford a R50 or R100 for an event. Most events has a fee. The majority is excluded. I hope you understand what has happened and why.
There’s no spite and harm meant. No spoiling anyone’s fun but to include more people in the fun.
Triangle and your little band of buddies – YOU GUYS R BEING IRRITATING – what gives you the right to try to spoil something for everyone else and to seed confusion and a split among us? YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME!!!! I CLAIM MY RIGHT TO CELEBRATE BRING A GAY WOMAN WITHOUT YOUR INTERFERENCE!!!!!!
Hi there,
It’s a pitty this article reflects the voice of Cape Town Pride only and not both parties.
However, what I know, there was several attempts with the Cape Town Pride board. Many individuals raised their concerns on deaf ears and they have then turned to community based organisations and trust me Triangle is not the only one so need to wrestle Triangle.
This is not about spoiling your fun or anyone else’s and neither did we want to have a seperate event. We have raised our concerns regarding the Pride theme as well as pride being too commercialised and not accessible for many people especially those who come from futher communities like the Cape Flats and Townships.
Non of Cape Town Pride’s events are community based and to be honest if you check the pride schedule, mostly all the events are social parties and money money money.
What happened to sending out a message? Many people don’t even know why we do Pride because all they see are drag queens and topless men. What happen to fighting for our rights and equality? 15 years into democracy and we still have issues we face on a dialy basis. What happened to educating the broader community?
This is how the fringe events came into place so we can have something more serious for example comemorating victims of hate, include rural communities in workshops etc. I think we have a fabulous programme to cater for everyone irrespective of race, religion, wealth and hopefully this is something which can be incorporated in Pride 2010.
We need to be realistic about Pride. Not everyone can afford a R50 or R100 for an event. Most events has a fee. The majority is excluded. I hope you understand what has happened and why.
There’s no spite and harm meant. No spoiling anyone’s fun but to include more people in the fun.
Well said…. I couldn’t have said it better!
power games?. Just to maybe shine another light: If there is talk of division it’s often a fight for who controls the profits. Can’t we work together to improve everybody’s life?
Sounds like the fringe events will cater for a different demographic and will just expand the reach of Pride. Not everyone is free to express their identity freely (by joining the march or attending parties). Some of us still have to live in a place where violence and rejection are the results of being honest about our feelings for others.
Isn’t Pride also about showing the world that we can do this, we can be free and happy if we stand up and be who we really are? Isn’t it, eventually, about being free to love?
How about some co-operation, or is someone trying to paint queers as a bunch of childish bitches.
Basic sums. So if Pride make all the events free, how are they supposed to pay for the Festival? Are the venues, the sound equipment, the DJs, the transport, the food all free to them? Catch a wake-up asshole and do a few basic sums – NOT everything can be free, there are expenses to be payed.
What a load of sanctimonious bullshit! The original saying is an insult anyway and anyone who’s heard it knows it means nothing! And to top it off the gay community gets the blame for being insensitive??? “‘Jou ma se Pride’ is a play on an insult commonly associated with the Cape’s coloured community.” That assumption is so racist it makes me want to scream!!!!!!
Crap Gay Politics. It is crap like this that makes me want to run so far from these pride events. All this hype over a stupid saying and all this political correctness makes me want to puke. We as Gays should have a sense of humour. I cannot wait for Evita to have her say on this pathetic debacle! Grow up! I say to these so called polically correct sanctimonious twats. News24 (Chris Roper) also had his say on this pathetic childishness.
ACTIVISTS!. Oh my the activists again. Whilst they sit on their arses and spend copious amounts of overseas money instead of actually DOING something, others like the VOLUNTEERS from CT Pride do the actual work. That woman from Triangle Project wasn’t even AT the Pride AGM. T her: Jou ma se e-pos!!
Ignore the activists, as always their events will be a big flop.
VIVA CAPE TOWN PRIDE VIVA!
Clarification. It is totally incorrect that Cape Town Pride has denied access to anyone. On the contrary, we have actively reached out to various gay organisations in Cape Town, inviting them to participate in all aspects of our planning process. The following email was sent to Triangle Project during October and is only one example of Cape Town Pride’s efforts to engage with other organisations. All invitations, including this one, were ignored. The facts speak for themselves – some individuals are being exceptionally mischievous.
____- Original Message ______
From:queer@24.com
Sent:Sunday, October 26, 2008 12:27
To:marlow@triangle.org.za marlow@triangle.org.za; info@triangle.org.za info@triangle.org.za;
Subject:Cape Town Pride
Dear Marlow –
I left a message with Heather for you to call me on Friday but you were obviously as busy as I was.
As the new chairperson of Cape Town Pride I extend my organisation’s heartiest congratulations on your promotion to the post of deputy director of Triangle Project. We wish you and Triangle Project well.
I have made repeated calls for LGBT organisations to become more actively involved in Cape Town Pride. In part this follows substantial criticism of Cape Town Pride following our February 2008 festival, through an email debate that was circulated amongst JWG members. I noted, with interest, that Triangle Project and The Inner Circle featured prominently in that debate with both organisations calling for Pride to be more “political”. As chairperson I respect these views (although I was disturbed at the manner in which they were expressed and addressed) and I hereby extend a personal invitation to your organisation to utilise the opportunities provided by the Pride festival to extend Triangle Project’s need to address political issues.
To this end I have ensured that the festival program includes allocated seminars, and I respectfully request that you consider using one of these spaces to focus community awareness on your 07-07-07 project which addresses homoprejudiced violence, particularly violence against black lesbians.
I would also welcome Triangle Project’s involvement in our organising committee and I hereby invite your organisation to nominate a representative to actively participate in this structure. Help us make the Cape Town Pride festival the event your organisation and your constituents would like it to be!
I eagerly anticipate your response.
Respectfully,
Glenn de Swardt
Chairperson: Cape Town Pride
021 425 6463
WHY?. This really makes me wonder…. So Triangle WERE invited to join in Pride last year already, which is contrary to what they claim in public? Well then damnit they have no right to be causing trouble now unless there is an element of malice.
This clearly sucks. YOU GO PRIDE!!!!!!
WHY?. This really makes me wonder…. So Triangle WERE invited to join in Pride last year already, which is contrary to what they claim in public? Well then damnit they have no right to be causing trouble now unless there is an element of malice.
This clearly sucks. YOU GO PRIDE!!!!!!
DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA!!. You know, sometimes, I have to hang my head in shame. If there is not enough drama, moffies will CREATE the drama. Haven’t we been discriminated against enough, haven’t we been on the other side of these type of things enough, without us having a go at each other too. I am so sick and tired that EVRY SINGLE THING you say and do have to be OVERANALYSED to the bone, to MAKE SURE you are not politically incorrect or you are not offending some asshole somewhere who believes in singing halleluja through his fat ass, and you HAVE to respect his religion or culture or whatever. Pride is supposed to be FUN and ..well.. PRIDE, not a catfight. Never have I seen ANYONE being excluded from pride. The invites are always open to anyone of any race and any culture to participate in the organising of the event. Then NOBODY pitches. And when the few people that actually BOTHERED to try and organise a fun day for the ungreatful bunch do anything, some green coloured, bisexual drag queen or something starts jumping up and down, because “they were excluded, or offended”. What a load of bullshit. Every year at Jo-burg pride black moffies moan and bitch that Pride is too white. So what the fuck is stopping them from jumping in and helping with the organising, and what is stopping them from attending. Every single year they have a mix of kwaito music with dance music, and something for everyone, and the black brothers that actually bother to attend, enjoys the day as much as the white asses. And then some ugly black queen will look at the photos of te day, and bitch out loud because “it was too white” but she never bothered to attend and actually BE one more black face.
I am so tired of having to tred on eggs everywhere you go in this fucking country, even in the gay scene. It is sickening. Why don’t you grow up, and enjoy life and the privelage you HAVE to attend a Pride. Who the fuck cares what the theme is?
Hypocrits. This is the same Dale who last year accused Beaulah Bar of being racist and tried to make a huge big stink but when he was asked to meet to talk about it he backed down. We never heard from him since and now he pops up again. Him and the pastor Marlon Valentine are seeking attention and power, nothing else. Hypocrites, both of them. If they don’t like Jou Ma Se then they must attack the restaurant that uses JouMa Se Kos, and Mark Lottering uses Jou Ma Se Commedy etc. But no, these two little devils attack another GAY organisation instead. Sies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just End Pride…Really. If we as the gay community want to have a party, let’s organise a frikken party, but the need for Pride is over…the first step of integrating properly with society is to live like everybody else.
All the commotion just makes the very community it’s supposed to represent, hang it’s head in shame!
Don’t end Pride. I disagree, why should we end Pride just because a few individuals are causing a stink and trying to make trouble? QUEER POLITICS is rotten, certianly the kind of cheap politics being played by Triangle, but then why should everyone be denied a Pride festival? Rather just expose the culprits and let everyone else get on with it.
Wankers. These twerps making another Pride are just making trouble for every body. I looked at the Pride program of events and many of their things are free. It costs money to make a festival like this one so they must charge money for some of the events? Pride do not get big overseas money like the NGOs who can waste their bucks on anything they want. Well done to Pride for the program they got together without any help from any of the gay NGOs. And the NGOs can call themselves ACTIVists but they sould like a bunch of BOTTOM wankers to me. Enough said.
From News24. Chris Roper
Gay used to mean happy, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far from here where Luke Skywalker could get away with wearing pyjamas in the daytime. Now, apparently, it means humourless twit.
The theme of the Cape Town Pride Festival this year has been changed from “Pink Ubuntu Jou Ma Se Pride” to “Pink Ubuntu”, not on the perfectly reasonable grounds that it was a really crap name in the first place, but because some activists and organisations in the city’s LGBTI community objected to the “Jou Ma Se” bit.
What is the LGBTI community, you ask, you silly straight thing you? Well, not Lugubrious, Grim, Boring, Turgid and Insipid community, as I first thought. No, it stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersex community. Hmm, you used to be able to spot gay people by the way they dressed. Now it’s by their love of ungainly names.
And speaking of ungainly names, one Marlon Valentine of the Triangle Project, the famous Project for Musicians who Can’t Play an Instrument but Still want To Show Willing, says (according to the Cape Times) that “the Afrikaans phrase ‘jou ma se’ was ‘never positive’ and reflected ‘anger, violence and disrespect’, particularly towards women.”
No kidding, Sherlock. On the other hand, the term queer was never positive, but it sure gets bandied around a lot by gay men. And that’s the point. Language isn’t immutably evil, it just gets appropriated for evil uses. The point of calling something “Jou ma se” is to re-appropriate those words, and dilute their effectiveness as an insult.
Sense of humour?
Think hip-hop and the re-appropriation of nigger, for example. But it’s not just the insult to glorious womanhood that the XYZzzzz community is complaining about, it’s also the insult to the Coloured community.
“Prominent [and hot, if his Facebook profile picture is accurate, but that’s no excuse] gay rights activist Dale Choudree,” commenting on the change of theme to Pink Ubuntu, “said that he believed the original tagline had been coined because festival organisers ‘wanted to be inclusive’ of different cultures.
“If (using the phrase ‘Jou ma se’) is the only way we can find inclusivity, what are we saying about coloured people?”
Well, so much for the Cape Coloured sense of so-called humour. Another stereotype shattered for me, along with the one about natural rhythm, which is conclusively proven to be a downright lie by the shambling marching bands that sashay down Adderley St every December.
Hell, we should be grateful that the organisers didn’t call it the Pink Ubuntu Blow you for a Rand, Master, Pride Festival. No, come on, people of the Insert as Many Letters Here as Possible community, lighten up (not in a racist, skin-lightening way, Dale! A mental way!).
There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a joke out of an insult. It’s an assertion of power, of confidence, and it also highlights the evil nature of that insult, and decries its intent to hurt.
Personally, I’d have themed this year’s gay pride march around “One Settler, One Buttock”, or possibly “Pink Ubuntu Lethu Mshini Wami, Ungqingili Pride” (translation for our foreign readers in America and Cape Town: “Bring me a rapid-firing penis, pretty boy”).
But hey – that’s just me.
Chris Roper has a mother, yes, so back off. Donations to Chrisroper.co.za
Doos!. Chris Roper, Editor in chief for News24 is Glenn`s buddy. Glenn also happen to be a writer for Health24, so come on people… obviously they talked and His buddy Chris took the liberty to take a stab out of the “activist” as they so call it.
I agree, If you are to report news, report it fairly, set the background from both sides and then come to you conclusion, dont be bias and take sides…
Chris Roper is not showing very good Journo Skills in doing so, and at this point as a white male who doesnt understand the negative conotation it has with people of colour and gender ramification it will incur….
It is enough that we struggle with corrective rape vis-a-vis our lesbian sisters, let us not spark more hate in reclaiming words that people from a priviledged background enjoy taking a piss out of and use as a means to degrade certain groups.
Let those who are affected by it, reclaim it in their own contended space as they feel comfortable, let us not make those decisions for them. Repect each others backgrounds, be sensitive to their position and consult with them regarding choices that might implicate them negatively.
I personally want to see a re-election of the the Pride Board, this is eminent and important to our history, gay culture and politics. We cannot have middle aged white men with personal agenda`s making decisions for a community that is as diverse as we are, it is unacceptible!
This is all just so silly! Can’t we as a community have fun any more? Why must we always try to take everything – and ourselves – so seriously? Please guys stop being so precious about a phrase that I, as a lesbian, have never taken offence to.
Activists?. I thought “activists” were supposed to be good guys addressing important social causes like AIDS, rape, poverty, the environment, animal abuse, domestic violence, child neglect, corruption and human rights – NOT wasting other people’s time and energy on really petty, trite little issues? Well thank you for sorting that out for me – now I know I was wrong.
Oh come on people why such a storm over something so small and petty? Surely there are more important things to worry about than an innocent phrase? People are suffering from AIDS while others quibble about Jou ma se whatever.
Bias. This article is astonishingly biased.
If you’re going to report news, then report it – tell both sides’ story.
Vanessa Ludwig’s affair. This has all the makings of a soap opera! Vanessa Ludwig, the Director of Trianlge has an affiar with her staff member and GHMCC Director! Triangle and Marlowe in particular have a bone with Glenn whom resigned due to the badly run Triangle Organisation, Trianlge attack Pride with every possible item, refuse to join, rile up an e-mail campaign and then arrange thier own events. Furthermore, the other organisations are too shit scared to stand up to Hitler Ludwig – so are brought along for the ride – and then there’s Marlowe who has a major crush – and is fluffing his tail feathers due to it. If I were the Trianlge BOard – I would institure a Board of Investigation imediately. At least this Lesbian left Triangle’s employ a year ego – I don’t have to put up with that crap anymore – like sands thru the hour glass…….
Ar – the Plot thickens. So I thought that there had to be more to this than just some theme. Someone should let the funders from overseas know about all of this…..
Makes sense. Wanted to say it sounded like the doing of some bitter old queen having a personal vendetta.
Glenn was the only guy at Triangle that actually did something worthwhile. What else are the Triangle project good for? The claim to be an organisation for gays, so why in the hell would they work AGAINST gays? WELL SHAMEFUL!! Triangle Project, you should hang your head in shame. We get enough opposition from straightville, we really do not need to work against one another too…
Vanessa Ludwig. As for Good Hope Metropolitan Community Church I wish to correct you that a) the organisation does not have a board of directors, but a council, and b) Good Hope MCC has been represented by Rev. Pressley Sutherland in the consultation process between the organisations
I am not sure where Vanessa Ludwig fits in here and who or who not she would have a relationship with.
So far from the insights of an Organisation you might know from hearsay. Take this as facts, I am using my real name and should kow..
My recommendation to the most of you: Come out from behind your pseudonymes and state open what your problem is.
I am not sure how many here are board members of Triangle Project (and have set the targets and peformance standards of the organisation and staff), but I fear not so many can really input on this (including me). If you feel that Triangle Project is mis-managed, I would recommend you write to the chairperson of their board.
I am very concerned when on a public space like this people assuming or sharing “facts” why Glenn for example left his position at Triangle Project. If I am correctly informed, Glenn de Swart resigned and as such only he can be privy to the true reasons behind his resignation. We should not assume or speculate about this. If Glenn feels he would need a public statement about his resignation, I know him vocal enough to make one.
Neither should we attach private motives to people representing an organisation.
This is getting very personal here and I feel many attacks might be unfounded or misplaced.
Split. Ok Robert, you stated your name and so did I but you don’t answer the key questions: why is your church actively supporting a split in the LGBT community in Cape Town? Can you deny that Cape Town Pride has invited NGOs to engage with them, months ago already? Can you deny that you, Robert Bayer, represented GHMCC at the Pride AGM and welcomed the theme for 2009? Why, after Pride changed the theme are you still going ahead with your ‘fringe Pride event’? And I agree that it doesn’t matter who anyone is having an affair with but if it is true that the director of Triangle is having an affair with a staff member it is an indication of the nepotism in that organisation, and if the staff member concerned is the secretary of your church it raises questions about her influence over your council. Also, the ex pastor of your church now works for Triangle. So come on Robert, address the real issues.
Split. Hi Paul,
The split in the LGBTI community is already there: It is split into those who can afford celebrating their Pride in style and those who can not. This didn’t happen over the last view months.
There are different views on the direction and focus (including political messages) of Cape Town Pride which require further discussions and engagement, but I don’t see why the additional offerings in various parts of the community should be canceled? They are free, in different areas, add diversity, are not competing with the other Pride Programme and – most important – cater for a different target group. The events might not be everybody’s liking (just like the other Cape Town Pride events), but why disregarding them? Visit what you enjoy.
There needs to be ongoing communication and mutual respect between the organisations involved. This is certainly the case from GHMCC’s side and I have no reason to believe otherwise for the rest of the organisations or even Cape Town Pride for the matter.
GHMCC added two events to the pride calendar (which is part of the programme) as it has done in the past and there is nothing wrong with that.
I won’t deny being at the Pride AGM, but I can deny having welcomed the theme as such. The theme was presented and not for discussion or decision. I was never particulary happy with the theme for different reasons, mainly that it doesn’t ‘speak’ to me as neither the old tag line or ‘Pink Ubuntu’ are within my cultural or language context (I’m expat). But that’s water down the bridge and won’t help either way.
The emphasis on people is really irrelevant. In the sector people are always in different roles, sitting on each others boards, etc. Joseph Rock from the TP board was treasurer of the Church as well, Rowan Smith on the Pride board is one of the churches guest preachers, a previous board member of GHMCC was a colleague of Ian McMahon from the Pride board, Andrew Massyn and I had offices in the same small building, Mary Hayms and Vanessa Ludwig have been colleagues, Glenn has been on the Pride Board while working for Triangle, the list is endless (my apologies if I mis-spelled any names). Nobody works in a vacuum, we are all interlinked.
Sure, you may raise questions about the influence of board members, but keep in mind GHMCC is a member based organisation. We have forums with our members/congregants several times a year and this is where the direction and stance of the Church is set.
Let’s address the issues based on their merrits and not via people’s names.
Enjoy Cape Town Pride and have a look at the Fringe Offerings as well. They are not excluding each other. Maybe I see some of you at the Movies tonight (I’ll be standing with my back to the wall covering my drink – come and introduce yourself – I’m bad with names).
Shocked. What is wrong with you folks??? The world is in turmoil
and you have time for this!!! Come on now these people
are suppose to be educated in conflict management yet
they can not resolve their own issues in private.Makes you wonder.