Hundreds march in Johannesburg to celebrate LGBTQ+ pride in South Africa

Hundreds took to the streets of Santon to celebrate South Africa's Pride Parade, one of Africa's largest annual celebrations of inclusivity. Participants waved rainbow flags and banners with messages of support for the LGBTQ plus community. Many donned colorful costumes for the rally. For me, Pride is a very important moment every single year. I've been coming to Johannesburg Pride since the 90s, even when I was in Hillborough. Nowadays I'm coming because my child is in the queer community and I'm here to march for trans people. As we've seen in countries like America, they are just taking away all the rights from transgender folk and that's what I'm here to protest about. That's why I'm here. South Africa was the first country in the world to write a ban on discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation into its constitution. We are here to celebrate our gay rights. Today is the only day in Johannesburg where we get to be free and authentic. Where we get to celebrate who we are, our true selves, and we also get to show the community who we are. It's a very beautiful day today because you get to enjoy Uluwantanayo. Although we have our rights every day. So we are very happy to be here. I'm very happy to be here and celebrate our rights because we have countries such as Uganda where I have multiple friends who are persecuted That's because of being gay. We have other African countries who are still not free. South Africa has built a reputation as one of Africa's most gender-inclusive places, with the country having full legal protection for the LGBTQ plus community.