Many years since he wrote the offending words, Jon Qwelane finally faces a court judgment over his notorious “gay is not okay” column. Qwelane was not in court, but at least his utterances are at last being examined legally to decide whether his insistence on his right to “free expression” has caused harm to those he attacked.
The column, with a headline and cartoon that made its impact stronger, was written at a time when lesbian women in townships were being raped and murdered in what were distinctly hate crimes. They are still being raped and murdered. In this edition of the Mail & Guardian, we recount the struggles of LGBTI students living in university residences. If he still holds the same views, Qwelane surely doesn’t care about them, either.
Meanwhile, the government has introduced stronger legislation to deal with hate speech. It insists it is necessary to combat racism and racist utterances such as those of Penny Sparrow, who compared black people with monkeys. It should see homophobic hate speech such as Qwelane’s in the same way.
