The Pink Inner-City
Creating Queer Spaces in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, during apartheid
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51185/journals/rhca.2021.e556Keywords:
Johannesburg, urban culture, queer culture, gay, lesbian, cruisingAbstract
Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and economic heartland, has a rich history of queer subculture. The paper focuses on Hillbrow in the 1970s and 1980s when it was regarded as the gay centre of Johannesburg and analyses how queer people formed their own urban culture in this inner-city suburb through the creation of gay and gay-friendly clubs and bars, secret house parties and public cruising. These processes are examined in the context of the Immorality Amendment Act of 1969 which criminalized gay men. The paper also analyses the racial dynamics between black and white queer people in Hillbrow, and how these complicated the production of queer spaces in the city. By making use of archives and interviews this research highlights the importance of Hillbrow as a safe space for queer people during apartheid.
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Some rights reserved 2021 Jonathan Botes; Gilles Baro, Sophie Dulucq, Camille Evrard
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