Unisa @ 150: LGBTQIA+ community celebrated and respected

Unisa’s Eastern Cape Regional Student Representative Council (RSRC), in collaboration with the university’s Eastern Cape Region, hosted a successful International Pride Month event on 30 June 2023 at the East London Regional Centre. The theme for the event was “Here to Stay and Be Respected”, and its intention was to create awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community’s trials and tribulations, such as the dangers they face, and the discrimination they deal with for being themselves. Speakers engaged with attendees, discussing what it means to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Motale Nkgoang, Unisa Eastern Cape Regional Director (fourth from right) flanked by members of the Eastern Cape RSRC and guest speakers

The acronym LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and the + holds space for the expanding and new understanding of different parts of the very diverse gender and sexual identities.

Students and staff filled a colourfully decorated room at the Unisa East London Regional Hub and listened to a series of speakers. Speakers shared their experiences of being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and educated the audience by reminding them that everyone has the constitutional right to life, dignity, equality and privacy as well as the freedom of expression, association, assembly, opinion, belief, religion, and movement.

The programme director, Luphelo Belu, an undergraduate Diploma in Public Relations student at Unisa, briefly spoke about the purpose of the event, which was to create awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community’s trials and tribulations, as well as to help society understand that they are proud of who they are.

In his address, East London Regional Director, Motale Nkgoang, highlighted the Bill of Rights and stated that those were values that talked to Unisa’s conduct and said he hoped Pride Month awareness would filter through to everyone attending.

“We cannot tolerate any violence to our community members, and we should spread the information to all corners of society, especially since there have been incidents where people have been violated and killed because of their sexual orientation, umuntu ngumuntu kaThixo (man is God’s man),” he said. Nkgoang also commented that everyone has the right to unleash their potential in all levels of society. “Unisa prides itself on embracing everyone, as this space is for everyone, including the LGBTQIA+ community,” he continued.

Eastern Cape RSRC member, Cinga Dlanjwa, further elaborated on the purpose of the day, as the “Here to Stay and Be Respected” theme was his concept. “The Eastern Cape RSRC decided to launch an awareness campaign with hope that it will bring about change,” he stated. “We live in a diverse country, and we appeal to society to accept the LGBTQIA+ community. With this campaign, we hope to educate community members, as people who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community are being killed and abused,” he further said, continuing that the intention was to eliminate the stigma and hatred towards LGBTQIA+ members.

Dlanjwa said he hoped that different organisations could help in educating people on what it meant to be a member of the LGBTQAI+ community and how to co-exist without passing judgement. He concluded by emphasising the importance of working together.

Social, Health and Empowerment Feminist Collective of Transgender Women of Africa (S.H.E) representative, Priscilla Nkomozakhe, commanded attention in the room with their flamboyant personality. Nkomozakhe shared what it was like when they tried to make sense of living in the body they were living in and stated that they thought of Andile Ntuthela (Lulu), in Gqeberha, who was murdered, simply because of their orientation, and a young school child who committed suicide because they got tired of being called names. Nkomozakhe further said queer people were usually murdered by people they know; therefore, it is society that needs fixing and not people who are simply being themselves.

Nkomozakhe also spoke on corrective rape, also known as curative rape, which is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation, stating that people are going through that every day.

They also indicated that it is a lesbian woman’s right to fall pregnant if she wanted to. Nkomozakhe also gave the meaning of the terms gay, bisexual, transgender corrective surgery and hormonal replacement therapy. “Gay is a person who is sexually or romantically attracted exclusively to people of one’s own sex or gender; bisexual means to be sexually or romantically attracted to both men and women, or to more than one sex or gender; transgender is someone whose gender identity or gender expression or both do not conform to that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth; corrective surgery is a surgical procedure to help patients by permanently restoring areas of the face and body that have been affected by scarring, deformity, generic, or medical conditions; and hormonal replacement therapy is typically used by transgender women and nonbinary people to produce physical changes in the body that are caused by female hormones during puberty. Those changes are called secondary sex characteristics and the hormone therapy helps better align the body with a person’s gender identity.”

Nkomozakhe closed off by quoting Audre Lorde: “When we speak, we are afraid our words will not be understood, but when we are silent, we are still afraid.”

Mx Thandolwethu Mpande, another Social Health and Empowerment Feminist Collective of Transgender Women of Africa (S.H.E) representative, said S.H.E realised that the LGBTQIA+ community experienced problems and helped to ensure that healthcare services were made easily available to them. This is necessary because a lot of queer people get traumatised when they go to clinics and hospitals; S.H.E creates a space where they can get help easier and legally.

Unisa Directorate for Career Counselling and Development Practitioner in Pretoria, Dr Thipe Nono, who connected virtually, spoke on inner knowledge of the self. She got the audience to ask themselves the question, “Who am I?” She also talked about what human sexuality is. She explained what her journey as part of the LGBTQIA+ community has been like, and discussed how she broke the news of her being a lesbian to her mother.

Avron Beaumont, a Tutorial Officer in the Unisa Gqeberha Service Centre, and Sloan Burton, an invited guest, connected virtually and discussed their subjective experiences as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Burton stated that he lived a secret life and that doing so was extremely dangerous for him. He shared how he was sexually assaulted and how that affected him and influenced how he created and maintained relationships thereafter. He stated that he ended up developing a dismissive avoidance style which is characterised by someone avoiding vulnerability, closeness and intimate attachment to others. Beaumont and Sloan also warned the audience about looking for love on social platforms because one can never really know what type of person is on the other side of the phone or computer screen.

Thando Mluma, also a S.H.E representative, interacted with the audience as he demonstrated how to use a condom. RSRC member, Siseko Kameni, thanked everyone who came in support of the International Pride Month event at Unisa and urged people to spread the information that they had learned on the day.

In conclusion, the International Pride Month event themed “Here to Stay and Be respected” was a success as the turnout was positive. It helped the attendees to better understand the LGBTQIA+ community. Attendees were able to engage with presenters, asking questions, and sharing experiences on interacting with members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Among the many things that the attendees took away from this experience was that every person, regardless of their orientation, is a human being with the same rights, and they, too, need to be treated and respected as such.

#Unisa150

* By Lukhetho Mbanjwa, Intern: Eastern Cape Region, Department of Communication and Marketing