{"id":6739,"date":"2017-03-07T15:25:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T09:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=6739"},"modified":"2017-03-07T15:25:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T09:40:50","slug":"cape-town-pride-2017-celebrates-self-expression-and-lgbtiq-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/cape-town-pride-2017-celebrates-self-expression-and-lgbtiq-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town Pride 2017 celebrates self expression and LGBTIQ identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu\/Pahichan – Cape Town was awash in rainbow colours on Saturday, as more than 7,000 people came out for\u00a0the city\u2019s annual Pride parade and mardi gras.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The procession, led by \u2018Dykes on Bikes\u2019, kicked off at noon in Green Point and wound its way through the city, culminating at the Green Point Urban Park.<\/p>\n

According to Cape Town Pride Festival Director Matthew Van As, the event was one of the biggest yet; with 16 floats taking part in the parade, in addition to walking groups.<\/p>\n

The issue of religious homophobia was the focus of a number of participants, with placards visible in the crowd calling for acceptance of all people by churches.<\/p>\n

Others held up signs claiming that Pride remained too focused on gay white men, to the exclusion of other members of the LGBTIQ community; a long standing dispute with some activists and organisations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alain Pierre Photography<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This year\u2019s theme \u2018I am what I am\u2019 was a call for self expression and self affirmation, explained Van As. \u201cPeople were like, \u2018this is who I am and this how I love and this how I live. This is me. No regrets\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the park, revellers were treated to entertainment from the likes of Manila von Teez, Latheem Gabriel and 3 Tons of Fun, as well as a variety of DJs.<\/p>\n

There were also food vendors, stalls and HIV awareness, testing and counselling services provided by Health4Men<\/a> and the WeTheBrave<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most lovely Pride we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Van As said. \u201cIt was very upbeat and inclusive and united.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van As expressed his gratitude for the city\u2019s assistance\u00a0with marketing, venues and logistics. Corporate sponsorship for Pride remains a problem, however. Van As noted that other than a presence from Absa, mainstream companies remain wary of taking part or supporting the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cSponsors are very difficult to get. We\u2019re very lucky that we had WeTheBrave this year and some of the alcohol companies got involved but for very small amounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alain Pierre Photography<\/em><\/p>\n

Copy :\u00a0http:\/\/www.mambaonline.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Saturday was the climax of a ten day festival that included parties, comedy shows, film screenings, the Mr and Miss Cape Town Pride pageant, a picnic and a book night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were events for everyone. We had something like 18 events over ten days, and there was community engagement in every event,\u201d said Van As.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf just one person got to be themselves without shame, without all the pressure of society and they expressed who they were for the first time\u2026 just one person\u2026 then I think our job was done.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu\/Pahichan – Cape Town was awash in rainbow colours on Saturday, as more than 7,000 people came out for\u00a0the city\u2019s annual Pride parade and mardi gras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":6740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[621],"tags":[1159],"class_list":["post-6739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lgbtiq"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6742,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739\/revisions\/6742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}