Surrounded by countries in which homosexuality is illegal, the South African constitution asserts the right to non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Despite legislative protection, and a large openly gay population, homophobic violence remains high. South African activists have made creative use of visual media and digital technologies in the struggle to make the rights encoded in the constitution real for the thousands of LGBTQI citizens who continue to be threatened by violence, stigma and exclusion. Yet the uses and implications of this creative work for political expression in this context remain underexplored in the literature on digital media and social change in the South African context. This project looks at some of the work being produced by queer visual activists in South Africa, and the context of its production, to gain an insight into both contemporary queer activism, and the lived experience of queer South Africans.
Cluster: Understanding conflict: forms and legacies of violence
School: School of Humanities
Campus: Grand Parade, Brighton campus
