Gay pageant lands Africa

 While Nigeria ponders the existential question of whether or not gays should be allowed to walk the streets, the Mr. Gay World pageant debuts on African soil—via South Africa. It featured the first black African contestants and held at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City on Sunday.

But it didn’t come without controversy. Mr Gay Ethiopia was promptly disowned by his father, and Mr Gay Zimbabwe had to withdraw after government agents reportedly began to harass his mother. Not surprising when you consider that President Robert Mugabe has described gay people as, “Worse than pigs and dogs.”



Wendelinus Hamutenya, the Namibian contestant, aged 25, also had tales of woe to share in an interview on the UK Guardian. He came out as gay when he was 16, and his father called the police and sent him to hospital for psychiatric treatment. He was beaten and hospitalised by two men after winning the Mr Gay Namibia contest last year. He is now reconciled with his family, who accompanied him to the airport when he left Namibia for the competition in Johannesburg, but he continues to hope that his country will be the second in Africa to recognise the rights of gay people.

South Africa, however, has consistently been progressive on the controversial subject, getting praise for breaking from the African majority at the United Nations to condemn homophobia. Teboho Maitse, who is acting chairman of the country’s Commission for Gender Equality told AP that when she travels, people tell her: “‘You South Africans, you don’t behave like Africans’.”