Joburg Pride is set to take place on October 26 but is facing backlash for not having enough queer people of colour (QPOC) represented.
This comes after the annual Pride festival announced that the headlining acts for this year would be Locnville and Sketchy Bongo.
Many Twitter users from the LGBTQI+ community pointed out that the problematic nature of having cisgender heterosexual men with no links to the queer community headlining the festival.
Including prominent transgender model Elle Rose and local drag performer Baba Ganoosh, real name Wassim Simo.
In an Instagram exchange with the official Joburg Pride Instagram account, Rose brought up the issue of having three cisgender heterosexual men headlining Pride and they responded saying:
"Tell you what. Before you rant your brains out on social media do yourself a favor and ask these "big queer artists" why they're not interested in performing on the Pride stage. There is only so much we as organisers can do. And lastly, these artists were sponsored to us by a music company.
"The ONLY artists that were interested as every single other artist said no. Why would we punt 'queer' artists if they themselves don't support the community???? At the end of the day we are all human. And the bashing of twins is not acceptable since they support pride more than 'queer'artists do 5s."
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/JhbPride?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JhbPrideblocked me for calling them out for having 3 cis-het men as their headliners. They also lied by saying they reached out to all the queer artists in the city... uhm... sure sis... but fuck our voices right? #BoycottJHBPride pic.twitter.com/ecHcXlh8pp
— baby caramelle 💿 (@baby_caramelle)
Baba Ganoosh then received a personal message from Kaye Ally, Chair of Johannesburg Pride, after she spoke on radio regarding Pride in general needing more QPOC representation and having more young people involved. In the message Ally attacked Baba Ganoosh for her comments and stated that she would refuse to work with the drag performer in future.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/JhbPride?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JhbPrideand mentioned that there should be more queer people of colour on stage and more youth involved in planning! The organizer decided to come for me and I won’t accept being bullied! Retweet if you agree! pic.twitter.com/FOE3v9IXpK
— AdragqueennamedBaba (@baba_ganoosh_)
Other Twitters also posted the responses they received from the official Joburg Pride Twitter with many members of the queer community being blocked my their account.
Jhb pride seems to be blocking everyone who is calling them out.
Jhb pride said they’re more supportive of pride than queer artists 💀 https://t.co/0d8QBAQ58S
— Ntsimedi (@ntsimedigwangwa) October 1, 2019
I am still trying to digest the fact that the JHB Pride account had the world queer in inverted commas in their response to the backlash *laughs in God hates fags*
— YouTube: Moe Suttle (@moesuttle) September 30, 2019
She’s not doing this to Baba alone but to many others. It’s just disheartening. Anyways. We should collectively not even go to JHB Pride. I won’t be supporting it anyways. 🤷🏾♂️ See you guys at DDI the night before.
— Lelo (@lelowhatsgood) October 2, 2019
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/JhbPride?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JhbPrideblocks me on Instagram cause I asked howcome there are only cishet white men on their lineup.
🤷🏽♂️ Idk how I’m suppose to believe this is a supportive space when they block Queers asking relevant questions.
How disappointing. haai.
— Gatvol Of Cishets (@AbutiGatvol)
They’ve deleted A LOT of comments calling them out for this. pic.twitter.com/0UXDcOqxeT
— miss vanjie (@taahira_k) September 30, 2019