Worlding Sexualities under Apartheid: From Gay Liberation to a Queer Afropolitanism. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Batra, Kanika
• Is Part Of: Postcolonial studies. Volume 19:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 52
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Postcolonialism -- Periodicals; 325.3
• DOI: 10.1080/13688790.2016.1222857
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-8790

Abstract

Abstract : This essay examines gay journalism as gay liberation literature to model a cultural history of sexuality informed by comparative urban and queer studies. My argument is that gay liberation literature under apartheid lags behind important shifts in sexual activism; and my aim is to extend the valences of postcolonial queer studies towards a historical examination of North-South interactions in theorizing sexual rights activism. The primary archive used is Link/Skakel, the official newsletter of the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), which soon became a mainstream gay newspaper called Exit . I first describe debates around the term Afropolitanism to describe how the development of a gay and lesbian subculture in Johannesburg was influenced by models of gay consumerism and activism in the North. Next, I examine the controversial legal reforms initiated by GASA without challenging racial discrimination and segregation, reflecting a consumption based identity politics. The direction of comparison from North-South and the exclusivist racial and gendered assumptions were challenged by a 'queer Afropolitanism' connecting racial and sexual liberation, articulated first by lesbians in GASA and later, the Gays and Lesbians of Witwatersrand (GLOW). In conclusion, I indicate how the transformation of the Johannesburg based gay liberation movement reflecting sexual, racial, and geographical diversity is not reflected in its associated publications, which degenerate into tabloid style journalism.