Rival gay group out to get drag queens - The Star

Rival gay group out to get drag queens
Ndivhuwo Khangale
September 21 2004 at 07:30AM

A rival gay group is behind the metro police's threat to arrest masked participants in the Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade.

"We are the ones who brought the Regulation of Gatherings Act to the attention of the police - it is like they didn't study it well," David Baxter, spokesperson for the conservative Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA), on Monday.

After an outcry over the threat to arrest drag queens and other disguised revellers in Saturday's parade in Johannesburg, metro police on Monday backtracked and gave the organisers the green light to strut their stuff.

But the GLA has vowed to make sure drag queens in particular are arrested for contravening the apartheid-era act.

This stipulates that the faces of participants in marches, protests, demonstration or gatherings may not obscure their faces with masks or paint.

Baxter said the GLA would immediately lay charges when the first drag queens hit the streets, and make sure they were arrested.

The legislation made it a crime for anyone to obscure their faces during public gatherings, he added.

"We are totally against such parades because they are unlawful and harm the image of lesbians and gays. They incorrectly imply that being gay and lesbian means jumping into the clothing of the opposite sex," Baxter said.

Metro police said they had met with the organisers of the parade and were satisfied that they would be conducting a peaceful parade and would not be contravening the law.

"At the meeting with parade organisers it was agreed that revellers could wear their masks, lipsticks and even paint themselves. However, they could not drink alcohol," Metro police spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said.

"The GLA cannot dictate terms for us - we use our discretion. Therefore, it was agreed that the parade should take place without hindrance."

"We don't want to interfere with what they will be wearing as long as the procession is decent."

He said the police and metro police, assisted by 600 marshals provided by the organisers, would monitor the parade.

Lesbian and Gay Equity Project spokesperson Sean Lucas, whose group is organising the event, said the GLA should adhere to the metro police's ruling.

"The police have given us the green light to go ahead with the event, and the GLA has no legal right to stop us."

Meanwhile the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), which was also not happy about the metro police's intention to arrest parade participants, said it was happy about yesterday's ruling.

Simon Ndungu, head of the FXI's anti-censorship programme, said: "I think the metro police have applied their minds and done the right thing."

"The FXI is currently looking into ways of bringing a constitutional challenge against the Regulation of Gatherings Act," he added.