The gay flag of South Africa is a
pride flag that aims to reflect the freedom and diversity of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and build pride in being an
LGBTQ South African.
It was registered as the flag of the LGBTQ Association of South Africa in 2012 and is not an official
symbol of South Africa.
Design
Designed by Eugene Brockman,
the flag is a hybrid of the
South African national flag, which was launched in 1994 after the end of the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era, and the
LGBT rainbow flag. Brockman said "I truly believe we (the
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
) put the dazzle into our
rainbow nation and this flag is a symbol of just that".
[ The stated purposes of the flag include celebrating legal ]same-sex marriage in South Africa
Same-sex marriage in South Africa has been legal since the '' Civil Union Act, 2006'' came into force on 30 November 2006. The decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of '' Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie'' on 1 December 2005 extended ...
and addressing issues such as discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
, homophobia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...
and corrective rape.
History
The flag was launched on 18 December 2010 at the Mother City Queer Project costume party which is held annually and took place that year at the new Cape Town Stadium
The Cape Town Stadium ( af, Kaapstad-stadion; xh, Inkundla yezemidlalo yaseKapa) is an association football (soccer) and rugby union stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, that was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. During the planning stage, it wa ...
.[
On 20 July 2012, the flag was registered at South Africa's Bureau of Heraldry as a heraldic flag representing the LGBT Association of South Africa.][ It is not an official national symbol, and not the only South African version of the LGBT rainbow flag.]
Gallery
See also
* LGBT rights in South Africa
References
{{LGBT in South Africa
2010 in LGBT history
Flags introduced in 2010
Flags of South Africa
LGBT flags
LGBT in South Africa
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
Sexuality flags