Colonialism and Sexual Orientation and Gender

The legal recognition of LGBT persons may have progressed since the colonial and apartheid eras, but the ideological positioning of LGBT persons as ‘unnatural’, ‘deviant’, and ‘unequal’ that became deeply entrenched during these times remains and continues to impact upon the lived experiences of LGBT persons and their access to rights. [...] Nevertheless, one should remain cognisant of the ways in which colonial conceptions of gender and sexuality have mapped onto contemporary post- colonial conceptions of gender and sexuality and continue to impact on the experiences of LGBT persons within South Africa today. [...] Most of the opposition to the inclusion of clauses relating to rights and equality for LGBT persons in the Constitution arose from the Public Participation Programme that formed part of the Constitution’s drafting process. [...] The protections afforded to LGBT persons by the Constitution are “important markers of the progressive human rights reach of the post-apartheid Constitution”.14 In other words, the recognition of LGBT rights within law are imperative as without such legal recognition and protection both symbolically (in the way it assigns value to LGBT individuals) and in actual legislation, change on a societal l. [...] This is as a result of the intersection of their race, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic positioning, which are linked to the colonial conceptions around Black sexuality mentioned above and the heteropatriarchal notions that form the foundation of contemporary South Africa.