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Gays
Reap Rewards Slowly in Post-Apartheid South Africa |
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CAPE TOWN — With the first all-race democratic elections in South Africa, in 1994, Nokwanda Ruiters expected her life as a mixed-race woman to change for the better. But she never thought that it would lead to her marriage to fellow lesbian activist Funeka Soldaat. Six years ago, lesbians and gays were unable to marry because they had no legal rights and no recognized place in society. Sodomy was against the law. Nokwanda's black partner was not allowed to vote because of the color of her skin. Gays and lesbians constitute a small minority of South Africa's population, but their struggle for equality since apartheid is a window on the nation as a whole. Like the majority of the country's residents, homosexuals have seen their rights increase since the end of apartheid, but like most others, they are still waiting for a better day. On their wedding day in a township about 30 kilometers west of Cape Town last December, Funeka and Nokwanda worried that their marriage would not be accepted in their close black community. Nokwanda, who guesses her age at 24 or 25, was afraid that her neighbors would throw stones at her borrowed car. A stocky woman with cropped tinted red hair and the light brown complexion that designated her as “colored” rather than black, she was resplendent in a traditional Western white wedding gown and veil. She nervously drank three glasses of water before joining her “groom”outside. Funeka Soldaat, 38, a Xhosa woman who, with her shaved head and wiry build, could pass for a man from behind, wore a khaki-colored suit. “We were trying to show them that we're people and we can live together,” said Nokwanda, who took the Soldaat surname despite the fact that her marriage was not legal. The neighbors got the message. Three hundred predominately straight friends, relatives and neighbors showed up to celebrate the wedding of the two lesbians that day. Those would could fit inside took over the cramped house, catered with chicken, samosas, pies and sausage rolls for half as many people. The rest partied outside in the sandy streets, periodically cheering to the health of the new couple. |
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