Q: Now that your journey is out there for all to read, have
you encountered any homophobia as a result of the book?
A: After being pushed into launching it at our annual Prince
Albert LeesFees (Feast of Reading) last year I realised it was
only me who was embarrassed about being gay. Organisers said
they could have sold double the tickets for the launch breakfast
and there were just as many straight people as there were gay.
My spice, Sandy, of 31 years cried the whole way through. No
homophobia anywhere. And nobody spray-painted “voetsak
lesbians” on our fence afterwards.
Q: The book is described as “an often amusing, often
heart-breaking account of the coming out process
for a lesbian in 60s South Africa.” Is that a correct
description?
A: Yes. I wrote that myself and sweated over each word for days.
And although the body of the book is light and often funny, with
chapters such as: Emperors, Kings & Drama Queens, As camp
as a row of tents, Was I butch or fem?, How’d you know you’re
gay? and Queer as a £3 Note how could it not be? But to put
things into perspective, and give us (gay people) a history, each
chapter begins with snippets of the treatment of LGBTI people
through history starting back in the late 19th century and bringing
us through to what life is like for LGBTI South Africans today.
Q: Much of your life-story is set during the apartheid
years in South Africa. A time of immense social
injustice for non-white South Africans as well as gay
people. Did this injustice impact on your life and are
you involved in activism for social change?
A Yes. And yes. Very little has changed for the disadvantaged
of South Africa, especially women. Ours is a male dominated
society with little tenderness or respect for women’s rights or
women in general. Domestic violence is on the increase. A man
beat a woman almost to death with her own baby for heaven’s