Hate speech mars gay festival
2008-04-21 09:38
Knysna - The organisers and supporters of the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras in Knysna were furious over boycott threats against the festival and enterprises involved in it.
The festival, which is very popular in gay circles, is taking place from May 1 till 4 and is celebrating its eighth anniversary.
Pastor Jerome Nel of the Garden Route Christian Centre and Ridwaan Omar of the Knysna Muslim Association already objected to the festival on behalf of these organisations.
"All God-fearing people have raised their opposition to the festival.
The Constitution of South Africa allows you freedom of sexual orientation but that doesn't mean you have to rub our noses in it," Omar wrote in an e-mail to one of the organisers, while in the past Nel had called the festival "a horror and a blatant rejection of the word of God".
Gay people's human rights
The festival's founder and organiser Juan Lerm said they had always experienced some measure of opposition against the Pink Loerie festival but that it had increased this year.
"There have always been people that don't approve of the festival but this year tactics like hate speech and blackmail have been used," Lerm said.
He already had made an appointment with his lawyers as he believed that the threats were hate speech and that they impinged on gay people's human rights.
He also planned to take these charges to the Human Rights Commission.