Friday Morning -Marching in the Streets of Cape Town

In July 2007, a 19-year-old girl was brutally murdered in Khaylitsha, Cape Town’s biggest township, for being a lesbian. The trial has had 21 court dates and 20 postponements. On Friday, Brigid and I went to a march in her honor, against hate crimes. The local human rights and LGBTI groups are asking to have the case moved to the High Court. The march was scheduled for 9AM, and we arrived at 9:30 (luckily, as predicted, it didn’t start until 10:15) at Grand Parade. They had bussed people in from all the townships who wanted to participate, and-of every single environment I’ve been in here-the march was the most amazing cross section of South Africans. All races, genders, sexualities, ages-yes, that’s a priest on the right.

The march went from City Hall to the High Court building, with a ton of people on the streets in between. There were window washers 12 stories up that started banging on the metal scaffolding when we passed (in support- we were doing lots of noisemaking as well). There was also a man on a corner who read a sign and responded “come on, he was a Christian!”...about the murderer. That really took me aback, though that contingent exists in the US for sure (think pro-life groups after George Tiller’s murder), I’m not sure how likely you would be to run into them on the street. As though the murder of a 19 year old girl was a Christian act. Painfully absurd. After speeches and the presentation of a position at the government building, we went to St. George’s Cathedral nearby. There was a lot of singing and really powerful speeches. The pastor opened saying “I’ve heard that the brutal attacks on and raping of lesbians (an increasing act in some townships) has been called ‘curative.’ It’s not curative, it’s punitive. It’s punishing someone for who they are.”

Apparently, the church has played a major role in a lot of the city’s human rights movements, even before the resistance to apartheid strengthened. So far, churches here have seemed to play such a positive and powerful role- it’s been amazing to be a part of it.