Queer apartheid in South Africa and the politics of representation

This thesis is a comparative historical analysis of the queer community's visibility politics during the apartheid and post-apartheid periods in South Africa. It analyzes different visibility strategies within black and white queer communities in post-apartheid South Africa. I argue that these two separated queer communities occupy different spaces that have different political goals. Beyond examining queer apartheid visibility politics, I also explore the ways in which these different visibility politics have historical remnants. I use Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex (LGBTI) movement organizations both during and post-apartheid in order to locate the white queer community that became invisible in post-apartheid South Africa. Where do we locate the white queer community in post-apartheid? My answer considers the political, social and economic dynamics that have regulated South Africans based on their race during apartheid; the Acts that segregated and oppressed black South Africans during apartheid. I also consider the shift from visibility (apartheid) to (in)visibility (post-apartheid) of the white queer community; the transition from apartheid to democracy and the attempts of multiracial LGBTI organizations movements that emerged post-apartheid to actively exclude white bodies while simultaneously reclaiming their identity and the history that erased black queer experiences. I show that just like how the two queer communities were separated during apartheid, they remain separated in post-apartheid.