LGBT rights in South Africa

===Apartheid era===
Under South Africa's ruling [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] from 1948 to 1994, homosexuality was a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison; this law was used to harass and outlaw South African gay community events and political activists.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/190268.stm | work=BBC News | title=Gay rights win in South Africa | date=9 October 1998 | access-date=23 December 2014}}</ref> In January 1966, the [[Forest Town raid]] on a large party in [[Forest Town, Gauteng]] led to further restrictions on gay and lesbian South Africans.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pushparagavan|first=Dixson|title=The History of LGBT Legislation|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-lgbt-legislation|access-date=2020-06-14|website=South African History Online}}</ref>

Despite state opposition, several South African [[gay rights]] organisations formed in the late 1970s. However, until the late 1980s gay organisations were often divided along racial lines and the larger political question of apartheid. The Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), based in the Hillbrow district in central [[Johannesburg]], was a predominantly white organisation that initially avoided taking an official position on apartheid, while the Rand Gay Organisation was multi-racial and founded in opposition to apartheid.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.boycottworldpride.org/id13.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627035812/http://www.boycottworldpride.org/id13.html|url-status=dead|title=Homosexuality under Apartheid.<!-- Bot generated title -->|archive-date=27 June 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Treatment of homosexuality during apartheid|first=Robert M.|last=Kaplan|date=16 December 2004|journal=BMJ|volume=329|issue=7480|pages=1415–1416|doi=10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1415|pmid=15604160|pmc=535952}}</ref> [[Hubert du Plessis]], one of the most prominent South African composers of the 20th century, was proudly and openly gay yet also a staunch supporter of the National Party and composed many nationalist works. He was outspoken about his sexuality, however, and appeared before Parliament in the late 1960s to protest the tightening of sodomy laws.<ref>James May (2011) Obituary – Hubert du Plessis, Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, 8:1, 115-116, DOI: 10.2989/18121004.2011.652401</ref>

In the country's 1987 general election, GASA and the gay magazine ''Exit'' endorsed the National Party candidate for Hillbrow, [[Leon de Beer]]. The campaign brought to a head the tensions between LGBT activists who overtly opposed apartheid and those that did not. De Beer was the National Party's first candidate to address gay rights, and advertised for his campaign in ''Exit''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Conway|first=Daniel|title=Queering Apartheid: The National Party's 1987 'Gay Rights' Campaign in Hillbrow|journal=Journal of Southern African Studies|date=December 2009|volume=35|issue=4|pages=849–863|doi=10.1080/03057070903313210|s2cid=144525158}}</ref> It was the general opinion of the gay community of Hillbrow that their vote was the deciding factor in de Beer's ultimate victory.<ref>{{cite news |last= de Waal|first= Shaun|date= 1 September 1989|title=Everyone's chasing the Hillbrow gay vote |url=https://mg.co.za/article/1989-09-01-00-everyones-chasing-the-hillbrow-gay-vote |work= Mail & Guardian|access-date=1 September 2019}}</ref>

From the 1960s to the late 1980s, the [[South African Defence Force]] forced white gay and lesbian soldiers to undergo various medical "cures" for their sexual orientation, including [[sex reassignment surgery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thegully.com/essays/africa/000825sexchange.html|title=The GULLY - Africa - Apartheid Military Forced Gay Troops into Sex-Change Operations|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> The treatment of gay and lesbian soldiers in the South African military was explored in a 2003 documentary film, titled ''[[Property of the State]]''.

Organisations such as the [[Organisation of Lesbian and Gay Activists]] (OLGA) worked with the [[African National Congress]] to include protections for LGBT people in the new Constitution of South Africa.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Nicol|first=Julia|date=1991|title=Organisation of Lesbian and Gay Activists|journal=Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity|issue=11|pages=45–46|jstor=4547977|issn=1013-0950}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thoreson|first=Ryan Richard|date=2008|title=Somewhere over the Rainbow Nation: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Activism in South Africa|journal=Journal of Southern African Studies|volume=34|issue=3|pages=689–690|doi=10.1080/03057070802259969|jstor=40283175|s2cid=144424127|issn=0305-7070}}</ref>