“Friends, peers and fellow queers!” shouted Sekoetlane Jacob Phamodi, “gather round!” Phamodi, the president of the gay and lesbian student society at Rhodes University, OutRhodes, was joined by supporters last Monday for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender (LGBT) Pride Week kick-off
event, Paint the Town Pink.
“Friends, peers and fellow queers!” shouted Sekoetlane Jacob Phamodi, “gather round!” Phamodi, the president of the gay and lesbian student society at Rhodes University, OutRhodes, was joined by supporters last Monday for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender (LGBT) Pride Week kick-off
event, Paint the Town Pink.
If you were on campus last week, you might have noticed the pink ribbons and risqué posters or maybe even caught a glimpse of the flashmob on Thursday.
This was a choreographed dance inspired by the hit TV show, Glee. But were these colourful gestures enough to challenge perceptions and create a lasting impression – or were they just a bit of the proverbial glitz and glamour?
According to Phamodi, attempts to push a heavy advocacy agenda were not wellreceived in previous years.
“Last year we did a lot of advocacy – so much so that we lost membership,” he said.
Grant Goodwin, the club’s advocacy officer agreed that OutRhodes has intentionally become a society that is less about activism.
“We try to do advocacy but it tends to fall more into the social, easy going role – we disagree with being militant about it.
“We want to be seen, but we don’t want to force and don’t think we should,” said Goodwin. This year the society made a deliberate move to be less outwardly-focused.
“We started looking inwards – not losing advocacy (in our events), but framing them differently.” Thus the programme for Gay Pride Week was selected to be both socially responsible and blatantly sociable.
The officers felt that this helped promote the club’s theme for the year: Community Engagement. The idea was to host events where people don’t realise they are learning something new, said Phamodi, “We’re playing with the whole education thing while still having fun.”
The club attempted to address multiple issues through their events last week. A dialogue entitled Same Sex – Safer Sex, offered an opportunity to engage about health and wellness issues with Student HIV/Aids Resistance Campaign (Sharc).
On Wednesday, an open discussion called, “Talking about a Revolution – Naming” where students explored issues around sexuality and identity construction.
But a holistic agenda would not be achieved without some entertainment. The Old Gaol hosted the Pink Pigeon Film Festival on Thursday, and the final party – called All Queers on Deck – took place at Pirates House of Pizza.
Is this student group adapting with the times by taking a less radical, in-yourface approach to gay rights activism?
Sure, a few discreet pink ribbons are still fluttering around campus, but many students don’t even know what they were meant to represent.
