Other officials, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, rallied to the defense of LGBTI people in George and throughout South Africa.
And on June 19 city residents, including a student marching band and of flag-waving majorettes sporting festive green and gold and white uniforms, came together for spirited show of LGBTI pride on the sunny (and windy) streets of George.
The parade ended at George Town Hall, where we were welcomed by Sean Snyman, the city’s head of community development. As with last week’s visit to the Apartheid Museum, we heard echoes of the current strife on our own shores–over immigration, race, and LGBT rights–in Snyman’s plea for tolerance.
“Society’s inability to practice tolerance has led us to situations where we are either too black, too white, or not colored enough,” Snyman told the assembled crowd. “We are either too feminine or too masculine in the eyes of our neighbors. We struggle to coexist because of the simple attitude of, if we do not understand it, condemn it.
“We’re all unique in this and it is our uniqueness that should unite us,” he continued. “It is indeed sad that as human beings we claim to be the most intelligent inhabitants on earth, but we still find ourselves creating conflict because of our intolerance towards not only our fellow human beings, but anything we fail to comprehend.”
Snyman offered a plea for people to work toward a more tolerant society, noting that doing so does not mean sacrificing one’s values and principles. Rather he said, tolerance is simply “the willingness to coexist with others whose values and principles differ from our own.”
Snyman added a few personal words after his official statement: “I come from a background of disability and I think society as a whole can learn from either the disabled or the gay community because we don’t look at color, we don’t look at language. We look at people for who they are. Everybody deserves a place under the sun.”
Snyman also offered a testimonial to work our work as cultural ambassadors that made us all feel tremendously proud and honored to take part in this historic moment for the city.
“On behalf of everyone here, I’d like to say thank you to the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus for taking the time to actually visit George and to change the future of George,” Snyman said. “I think today is a simple example of how people can stand together regardless of what their backgrounds are, internationally and locally. South Africa, it’s time to wake up.”