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Pretoria LGBTI Pride

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The first Pretoria Gay Pride (later Pretoria LGBTI Pride) was founded in 2013 as the first Gay Pride for Pretoria, South Africa. All other major cities in South Africa already had some form of ongoing pride event (predominantly Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban[1])

History[edit]

The Millennial Youth of Pretoria felt that, after the collapse of the then 22-year-old Joburg Pride (short for Johannesburg Pride) in 2013[2], the time was right for the administrative capital of South Africa to have a Gay Pride event of its own. Pretoria has seen a significant increase in LGBTI community members over the years since South Africa became a full democracy in 1994, with gay rights enshrined in its 1997-adopted Constitution.[3]

The Pretoria LGBTI Pride was founded by Wayne A Botha (activist), Emil Faber (attorney), Brett Kingsley-Phillips (Advocate of the Johannesburg bar), Graham McLeroth (1970-2014, businessman and former owner of Babylon the Club), Charl van den Berg (1982-2015, former Mr Gay South Africa and Mr Gay World[4]), Bruce Walker (businessman and current Chairman[5]), Jeanre Wepener (activist), and Frans-Petrus Zeelie (businessman, Mr and Miss Pretoria Gay Pride founder[6]).

Though some of the Founding Members are no longer active on the Board, the event (with skepticism of its viability back in 2014) managed to ascend to its fifth annual event in 2017.[7]

Ongoing History[edit]

The Founding Members decided to held the event every first Saturday of the month of October. It is fairly early Spring this time of the year, and traditionally marked by "LGBTI Month" in South Africa. As the worldwide "Pride Month" is often associated with June (when the first ever pride event took place in New York on June 28th 1970 [8]), in the Northern Hemisphere, June is normally the peak month for Winter in South Africa in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, it was made a tradition by the public to hold it as close as possible to June, but during a Spring/Summer time, and October was the best option for this decision.

The organizers of Pretoria LGBTI Pride also wished to coincide the event with the by-then-debunked Joburg Pride[9] to provide a new alternative event to go to for the Gauteng Province gay population.

The first ever Pretoria LGBTI Pride event was held on Saturday, the 5th of October 2013[10] on municipal grounds at the corners of Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and South Street in the major Pretoria suburb of Centurion (Southern parts of the city). The location was chosen as it was still in Pretoria, but in a more LGBTI-friendly neighborhood, often dominated by Ward Councillors of one of South Africa's more liberal and open-minded political parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA)[11]. It was also closer (and more known) to people of other major urban areas of Gauteng, including Midrand and Johannesburg.

In 2015, Pretoria Pride's official name slightly changed to be more inclusive of the diverse community it represents, and to coincide with its slogan for that year: Pride Without Prejudice. It went from Pretoria Gay Pride to Pretoria LGBTI Pride.

Since 2014, Pretoria LGBTI Pride events were held at the Centurion Rugby Club (Rugby, notorious in South Africa as a predominantly 'straight sport'), in West Avenue, Die Hoewes, Centurion. The rugby club is located next to the infamous Centurion Super Sport Park (often noted for its International Cricket Tournaments)[12].

The 5th Pretoria LGBTI Pride event was held on the 7th of October 2017.

Meetings and Transparency[edit]

Pretoria LGBTI Pride is known for its open meetings and transparency to all interested in taking part in the organizing of the event.

Though it has a chairman, and various permanent Board Members, the majority of the event is organized by volunteers and sponsors, each contributing a unique part to the event. This somewhat leaves the event open to insecure financial viability, but has the added benefit of "that as long as the people wish to have the event, it will be organized". Thus far this principle has proven successful.

Pretoria LGBTI Pride is one of few LGBTI social events in South Africa not functioning under a profit-driven company (proprietary limited, or chapter 7/23 profit company), rather it is fully dependent on its annual sponsors and volunteers for its existence.

Open-to-the-public meetings for Pretoria LGBTI Pride usually start in March of each year, held weekly or fortnightly on a Wednesday evening up until the official event in October.

In 2017 all Pretoria LGBTI Pride meetings were held at GaySA Radio's studios in Capital Park, Pretoria, with GaySA Radio being the main sponsor of the event that year.

Past Events[edit]

Event Location Date Head Count
1st Pretoria Gay Pride: Gay by Nature, Proud by Choice! Cnr Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and South Street, Centurion Saturday, 5 October 2013[13] +/- 3000
2nd Pretoria Gay Pride Centurion Rugby Club, Centurion, Pretoria Saturday, 4 October 2014[14] +/- 4000
3rd Pretoria LGBTI Pride: Pride Without Prejudice Centurion Rugby Club, Centurion, Pretoria Saturday, 3 October 2015[15] +/- 5000
4th Pretoria LGBTI Pride: Raise Your Flag in Unity Centurion Rugby Club, Centurion, Pretoria Saturday, 1 October 2016[16] +/- 5000
5th Pretoria LGBTI Pride: Pride Unite Carnival Centurion Rugby Club, Centurion, Pretoria Saturday, 7 October 2017[17] +/- 7500
6th Pretoria LGBTI Pride (To be confirmed) Saturday, 6 October 2018[18] -

In Loving Memory[edit]

To date, Pretoria LGBTI Pride had to say eternal goodbye to two of its founding members:

  - Graham McLeroth (1970 - 2014)
  - Charl van den Berg (1982 - 2015)[19]

References[edit]


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