The Gay & Lesbian Review

GUEST OPINION

Mandela Eulogies Ignored His GLBT Activism J AMES P ATTERSON

pressive speaker, Rasool credited Mandela with making his country “non-racist, non-sexist.” Concluding, he said the world is still on “a long walk to freedom and it is not over.” This is a sentiment the global GLBT community would share. In private conversations with the diplomatic corps, I heard the situation for GLBT South Africans on the streets of the major cities was “nothing to brag about at present.” I also heard that leaders of the African National Congress objected to any mention of Mandela’s gay rights advocacy. The ANC has cer- tainly strayed from its 1990s views on this and other issues. While Mary Menell Zients spoke for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, USA, there was no spokesperson for 46664, Mandela’s AIDS charity named for his prison number. At his 90th birthday party in London’s Hyde Park in 2008, attended by more than 46,000 admirers, proceeds went to 46664. Why no mention of Mandela’s AIDS and GLBT activism as president of South Africa and beyond? In 2008, he told his crowd, “Where there is poverty and sickness including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done.” He concluded by saying, “It is in your hands now.” He was right about that, but it’s also in our hands to remember Mandela’s courage and leadership on GLBT issues and to keep his spirit alive in the fight for equality.

I N THE EARLYMORNING of December 11, my taxi sped down Massachusetts Avenue from Dupont Circle to Wash- ington National Cathedral, a route popularly known as Em- bassy Row, I saw visual evidence the world mourned for South African President Nelson Mandela. Virtually every embassy had its flag at half mast in honor of the late leader, who had died December 5. As a gay man, I expected to hear a speaker at the memorial service praise Mandela for his groundbreaking accomplishments on GLBT rights in South Africa, such as his constitutional ban on discrimination against gays and his support for legalizing same-sex marriage, and, after his presidency, his AIDS activism fueled by his eldest son’s death from the disease. These were significant achievements for anAfrican leader in the 1990s on an issue that wasn’t popular anywhere on the continent. Not one of the main fourteen speakers at the memorial was sufficiently im- pressed by these accomplishments as to mention them in their eulogy, though there were multiple opportunities. During his fifteen-minute tribute, Vice President Joe Biden had several such opportunities. When he spoke of Mandela having “a vision of a new South Africa,” he could have said an inclusionary vision for GLBT South Africans. When he re- marked that Mandela, after release from prison, displayed a loyalty to all his people, including blacks, Indians, and whites, it was the perfect moment for him to mention gay rights. When he spoke of South Africa’s transition to democracy, this was a chance for him to mention that Mandela presided over the en- actment of a new constitution for South Africa that expressly recognized GLBT equality and protection from discrimination. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, a lifelong gay rights sup- porter, could have spoken eloquently about Mandela’s gay rights advocacy in South Africa. Instead, Kerry did not speak. He was called away from his front row seat many times to con- fer with State colleagues, perhaps on Iran negotiations. Dr. Mary Frances Beery, a longtime apartheid opponent and frequent demonstrator at the South African embassy in Washington in the 1980s, a professor at the University of Penn- sylvania, was the first speaker to draw loud applause from the audience. She called on leaders to remember others wrongly incarcerated like Mandela, but made no mention from her work on behalf of GLBT issues. Conspicuously missing from the service was former Wash- ington DC delegate Walter Fauntroy who was also frequently arrested for demonstrating against apartheid at the South African embassy in the 1980s. Fauntroy is now a DC minister who rails against GLBT equality. At least we can be grateful that this divisive figure wasn’t present. Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s Ambassador to the U.S., also made no mention of GLBT issues. Rasool’s bi- ography on the embassy web site states: “His social and polit- ical involvement has consistently been faith-driven.” The bio makes no mention of any work on gay issues in South Africa, but does state he’s active in the Islamic Movement. An im-

James Patterson is a contributing writer for Bay Area Reporter.

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