LGBTQ+ residents march in Mamelodi
The march that turned 5 years old, has closed out Pride Month.
NGO, Walk With Heart (WWH), recently held its fifth annual No Fear Pride March at Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square.
The annual celebration is dedicated to honouring the lives, visibility, and rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ) community in Mamelodi.
Each year has a different theme during their panel discussion. This year’s theme was “Resisting the Resistance: Repositioning Ourselves as the LGBTQ+ community in Response to New Challenges from Global Superpowers”.
The marchers gathered on June 28 at 08:00 at Solomon Mahlangu Square in Mamelodi West for the march, which started at 09:00.
After arriving at the Denlyn shopping centre, the festivities included a panel discussion, DJs, and artist performances.
The event was founded in 2019 by Andrew Lethole, Kgothatso Sethole, and Sifiso Sithole, also known as ‘The Tholes’.
They are based in and operate in Mamelodi, and say their mission includes raising awareness about HIV and Aids, facilitating testing and treatment, and addressing the broader challenges faced by the LGBTIQ community.
“The LGBTQ+ community continues to face discrimination and violence, as well as a lack of access to health services. The demise of agencies – like the Usaid – has resulted in many NGOs that used to provide health services to the LGBTQ+ community closing their doors due to lack of funding, which has resulted in the queer community going back to public health facilities, where they often face persecution,” Sethole said.
WWH has collaborated with several other NGOs in the past, including the Aurum Institute, Access Chapter 2, and Not In My Name International.
This year, they partnered with designers Agrippa Dumisani of House of Agrie Couture and Sello Gene of Gene Hunter Original, who provided the dresses for the drag performances.
Thibo Café 2.0 is another collaborator that hosts WWH for their annual fundraising event.
“During our panel discussion on Saturday, there was an overwhelming message for all LGBTQ+ people in Mamelodi and beyond to truly unite and organise ourselves. Our community globally is under attack, and if we are to make it, it has to be together. Not all of us can storm the streets in protest; however, if we can make a difference where we are, wherever we are, it’ll go a very, very long way,” Sethole said.
The NGO looks forward to working on a smaller event during the South African Pride Month, in October, as well as the Mams Winter Pride event on July 26.
“Our message is clear, we are here, we are queer, we are part of the greater community, and we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We want other parents who have children who are queer to know that there is nothing wrong with their children, and they ought to love and protect them and encourage them to be themselves, and hopefully seeing us marching and making a raucous in the street will help them in that,” Sethole said.
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