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"Furthermore, the event organisers only received permission from the chief magistrate of Johannesburg the day before. Many participants were afraid of exposure to public scrutiny or that family members would see them. Today, thousands of people join the parade but at the inaugural event fewer than 100 took part. The closest we came to a miracle was the sexual orientation clause in the constitution, because no other country had done it." "It happened because people worked for it. People sometimes wrongly say that both the constitution and the transition was a miracle. "It was a wonderful feeling because we didn't think it would happen. "This story is told in a number of books but I've never told my side," he says. In a way, this led to SA becoming the first country to write the rights of the LGBTQ+ community into its constitution.Ĭameron, who played a leading role in organising the march, reflects on the feelings it evoked. They formed alliances with churches, gay organisations, political activists and members of the queer community to organise the first Pride Parade in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, in 1990. Nkoli, with Cameron, Beverley Palesa Ditsie, Phumzile Mthethwa, Donné Rundle, Terry Myburgh, Roy Shepherd and others were tired of living in fear of repression and persecution, tired of feeling shame on the basis of their sexuality. In SA, I'm oppressed because I'm a black man and I'm oppressed because I'm a gay man." I cannot separate the two parts of me into primary or secondary struggles. He famously declared: "I am black and I am gay. Nkoli was an influential figure in the anti-apartheid struggle and a leader of the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW). He conceived the first Pride as a political statement but also as an opportunity to assert gay rights, for self-expression and to have fun - a combination of everything Pride should be." He was serious politically, a dedicated activist who had a deep sense of principle about activism, but he was also naughty in a good sense. "The late Simon Nkoli first had the idea for the Pride march," says Cameron, remembering the Saturday that would be instrumental in influencing SA's new constitution. But where did the movement begin and how far do we still have to go? This year, Pride celebrates 30 years of LGBTQ+ activism. Let's not forget that Uganda proposed the death penalty for homosexuality. Years later his words are still relevant. It was also the first Pride march held in Africa. To criminalise being gay and lesbian is to criminalise a part of normal society," acclaimed former Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron, now 66 years old, said in a speech at SA's first Pride march in October 1990. "Being gay or lesbian is part of being human.