Through a decolonial lens: Homonationalism in South Africa and the Cape Town gay pride parade.

While the South African progressive constitution brought with it liberties for the LGBTQIA+ community through incorporation of the sexual orientation clause, these liberties remain largely inaccessible for black African same-sex intimacies. This disconnect can be directly attributed to histories and processes of colonisation and coloniality that have produced particular ideas of what it means to be human, with full rights and citizenry, as well as non-human, where access to sexual rights and economic liberties is a constant struggle. This is the context within which homonationalism manifests and thrives in South Africa. This chapter engages with homonationalism in South Africa through an analysis of the Cape Town gay pride parade during the period of 2014, 2015 and 2016 when contestations erupted that labelled this parade as “too white” and non-inclusive of non-white gay cisgender middle class men. The chapter is guided by this central question: What kind of hierarchies do queer politics at the Cape Town gay pride produce while claiming to contest for sexual rights? This analysis contributes to a decolonial conversation on queer politics in South Africa and shows how African same-sex intimacies deploy strategies of rebuilding to re-exist. These strategies of re-existence offer moments that humanise and therefore take up forms of decolonial joy.