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Brent Lindeque, better known as the Good Things Guy, reflects on why Freedom Day is so important to him as a gay man.
On Monday morning, we were chatting about Freedom Day on our show (on Clubhouse) with a light-hearted conversation around "public holiday day-drinking vibes", when Nick - a co-host - asked me what does Freedom Day mean to me?
Freedom Day is a public holiday in South Africa celebrated every year on 27 April. It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group, including foreign citizens who were permanent residents in South Africa, were allowed to vote. Previously, under the apartheid regime, those who weren't white, in general, only had limited rights to vote while indigenous black South Africans had no voting rights whatsoever.
Homosexuality a punishable crime
In 1994, I was nine and didn't understand that, even though I was white, I also didn't have the same rights that others were afforded before this monumental day.
You see, during that time (from 1948 to 1994), under apartheid and South Africa's ruling National Party, homosexuality was a crime punishable by imprisonment and torture. Those who identified as gay had to keep who they were a secret, or they would be locked up, beaten and even forced to undergo medical "cures" like sex reassignment surgery.
Just writing that sentence breaks my heart. Ugh, human beings are the worst.
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But in the background and for many years, the African National Congress (ANC) had been fighting for equal rights and freedoms FOR ALL. Even us homos.
After years of exiled struggle, during which many ANC members had been imprisoned or forced abroad, the country began its move towards full democracy.
On 2 February 1990, State President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and released Nelson Mandela from prison on 11 February 1990. On 17 March 1992, the apartheid referendum was passed by the white-only electorate, removing apartheid and allowing the ANC to run in the next election. And in 1993, in the Bill of Rights, the ANC endorsed the legal recognition of same-sex marriages, and the interim Constitution opposed discrimination based on sexual orientation.
I am free today
These provisions were kept in the new Constitution, approved in 1996. As a result, South Africa became the first nation in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Constitution.
Ja, Freedom Day celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994, but there is so much more to the story. Because incredible South Africans were fighting for freedom for all, I am also free today. As a gay man, they also fought for my freedom.
So what does Freedom Day mean to me? Good grief… everything.
It means everything.
- Brent Lindeque is the Good Things Guy.
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