Emilie Shimbali
Proud members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) community as well as feminists, businesses and allies will host ‘Namibia Pride Week’ from tomorrow to 4 December to celebrate their accomplishments.
The first-ever event of its kind in Namibia will be held under the theme ‘Celebrating Intergenerational Equality’ in dismantling stigma, and this will be accompanied by a series of events throughout the week with lots of entertainment.
“We’re doing this to commemorate the victories and struggles of the LGBTQ+ community and those who support it. The week is a first of its kind, with events lasting the entire week, celebrating our community’s right to love, right to exist and right to equality,” said Omar van Reenen, civil rights activist from Equal Namibia.
The Namibia Pride Week will begin with a feminist festival hosted by the Voices for Choices and Rights Coalition, which will take place on Saturday in the Zoo Park Amphitheatre.
This will feature a fantastic line-up of DJs being Alba Nalo, Kiki and Loudima, as well as other notable artists such as Lioness, who will be headlining the event. In the interim, movement leaders will deliver speeches on intersectional civil rights issues.
Van Reenen said: “This will educate the public on issues such as intersectional bodily autonomy, reproductive justice and the advocacy to repeal the Abortion and Sterilisation Act of 1975”.
Other Pride Week events include sunset yoga in the park, LGBTQ+ quiz night, Rainbow sidewalk, Kapana movie screening, Love is Love exhibition, Drag night and the Pride Parade.
The last event, scheduled for 4 December, will feature musicians such as Lize Ehlers, special guest Mr. Gay World 2021 Louw Breytenbach from South Africa, who will be the Pride Parade Grand Marshal.
The public can expect educational sessions about the LGBTQ+ community, sexual health and economic issues in society, law reform, live HIV testing as well as PrEP and PeP information-sharing and counselling.
“We encourage people to attend all events taking place during Pride Week in order to celebrate our lives and the accomplishments we have achieved thus far, and those yet to come,” he urged.