On this day in queerstory: Johannesburg hold South Africa’s first pride parade

On October 13, 1990, a landmark event took place in Johannesburg, South Africa: the country’s first pride parade, organized by GLOW (the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand). This was not simply a party; it was deeply political, an act of resistance in a country still under apartheid.

To understand why this day mattered so much, you have to understand the context. In 1990, South Africa was beginning to shift: Nelson Mandela had been released earlier that year, and apartheid policy was under increasing pressure both domestically and internationally. But legally and socially, much of queer life was still criminalized, stigmatized, and persecuted. GLOW, led in part by Simon Nkoli, a Black gay anti-apartheid activist, had the double burden of fighting racial injustice and fighting for sexual identity.

Nkoli often said, “I cannot be free as a Black man if I cannot be free as a gay man.” Those words resonated then — and still do — because they captured the twin oppressions many people bore. To protest one without the other was inadequate. October 13 became a moment when those oppressions were spoken together, when people said that civil rights, human dignity, and queer identity are inseparable.

On that day, about 800 people marched through Johannesburg. It was audacious: openly queer people walking in the streets in full view, demanding visibility, calling for rights. Many risked legal repercussions, societal shame, and even violence. The act of being seen was a kind of bravery: saying, we are here, we will not hide, we will demand our place in a future South Africa.

The parade was as much about protest as celebration. Speakers at the event included Simon Nkoli, Donné Rundle, Beverly Ditsie, Edwin Cameron, and Hendrik Pretorius. They talked not just about gay and lesbian rights, but about the urgency of ending apartheid, the necessity of freedom for all bodies, all races, all identities.

That first Johannesburg Pride was the beginning of a visible queer movement in South Africa. It gave people courage: to form support groups, to speak openly, to challenge policing and discriminatory laws. After apartheid formally ended, South Africa (in 1996) included explicit protections on the grounds of sexual orientation in its new constitution — one of the most progressive in the world at the time. That legal leap was connected to many things, but one of them was the visibility, activism, and moral force built in events such as the 1990 Pride.

Still, the path was not smooth. Social attitudes did not shift overnight. Discrimination, stigma, and violence persisted. But every pride march, every speech, every public acknowledgment of queer lives made the idea of equality more tangible. It wore down silence and fear. It built community.

October 13 teaches us something essential about queer history: visibility is often dangerous, but necessary. That first Johannesburg Pride was not safe, but people showed up anyway. It reminds us that queer movements are interconnected with broader struggles — race, justice, civil rights. The marchers in 1990 were not just demanding recognition of sexual identity; they were saying that oppression in any form is entwined with oppression in all other forms.

Also, it underscores how critical early pride events were in countries outside Western Europe or North America — places where queer people often had to fight for both fundamental civil rights (like ending apartheid) and recognition of sexual/gender identities simultaneously. These events are not always in textbooks, but they shape present possibilities: legal protections, cultural conversations, community visibility.