Statement by Mark Rountree
GOOD’s National Policy Officer
15 June 2021
SA YOUTH & GAY PRIDE: silence the voices of intolerance, not victims of hate
Today members of GOOD stood in solidarity with students of the DF Malan School in Bellville, Cape Town, who were last week denied permission to acknowledge Gay Pride Month. Students and supporters of recognising Pride were reportedly placed on a “F*ck the F*ggots” WhatsApp group. This is not where South Africa should be, in the midst of Pride week, in the month where we pay tribute to the freedoms that young people fought and died for.
GOOD believes that you do not need to be gay to fight homophobia. GOOD’s National Policy Officer, Mark Rountree, says that in silencing the voices of tolerance and inclusivity, one endorses hate and becomes complicit in hate crimes. In tolerating discrimination, we fail the promise of a better democratic South Africa.
The DF Malan School was named after Prime Minister DF Malan, who set the foundations for the National Party’s apartheid policy. Later declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations, apartheid stripped away the rights of blacks, coloureds and indians; of women – and of gays.
Rountree delivered an open letter to Sias Conradie, the Principal of DF Malan High School, and Andre Roux, Chairperson of the School Governing Body, asking for the school fix the intolerant attitudes of the few students not yet mature enough to accept people different from themselves.
It is time DF Malan embraces our democratic Constitution of inclusively and tolerance.