Quorum is a live journalism forum focused on LGBT experiences around the world. Its mission is to lift up the voices of non-Western LGBT activists defining the struggle for justice. Visit Quorum.TheDailyBeast.com for more stories of persecution, triumph, adversity, and strength.
When apartheid fell, Jabu Pereira watched as South Africa granted sweeping equal rights to its LGBT community. In fact, South Africa was the fifth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
“As black queer people and black South Africans we stood in lines for hours and hours and hours and we cast our very first vote,” Pereira recalled at The Daily Beast’s first installment of Quorum: Global LGBT Voices last December. “[It was a] double victory because sexual orientation was guaranteed into our constitution.”
But not all was what it seemed.
“When people say their countries flourish because there are more rights that are guaranteed, I ask them to look closer to South Africa,” says Pereira. “We have ticked all the boxes, but we’re one of the most violent countries in the world [and] HIV infections are at its highest.”
In the video below, Pereira shares how their organization Iranti.org documents the voices of queer people living at the intersections of South Africa’s many oppressions.