rainbows are just refracted white light: settler homonationalism in neo-apartheid south africa

identity is not solidarity

the failure of intersectionality I'm a white middle-class South African...when I go to a police station as a gay man, they treat me very differently than they do a black gay man going to report a crime. I'm no threat to the culture because of my whiteness and seeming foreignness. As a middle-class white man, I experience very little discrimination. When I need to access services, I access them very easily (Interviewee 1, August 29, 2011). violence against them, not by them

violence & culpability I don't think any of the hostility that's out there is a result of strategies that have been employed, I think it reflects the conservative nature of the country (Interviewee 7, August 3, 2011) horizontal power & intelligibility of harm The more people try to claim power on the basis of their sexuality, of course there's going to be a pushback. That's the nature of hegemonic power, it pushes back. (Interviewee 11, August 21, 2011)

state violence It's definitely created a political space for LGBTI realities and experiences to be exposed and articulated, and therefore to be engaged with. The power of the Constitution in creating that space cannot be undermined…the law is obviously a powerful tool. (Interviewee 11, August 21, 2011) the ruse of human rights by the neoliberal state There has been a recent spate of violence against black lesbians in the townships which is why we need hate crimes legislation, once again a focus on the law. (Interviewee 2, August 5, 2011)

universal gay identity We coordinated a national tour with our drag queen. We had R3000 worth of media exposure talking about corrective rape and LGBTI issues. (Interviewee 4, July 25, 2012) queer imperialist project of native genocide I believe that in South Africa today we have a genuinely non-racial gay and lesbian movement, which has struck roots in townships and rural areas. It is a movement in which there is increasingly a commitments to the interests of the poor and black LGBTI people. (Kraak 2008: 280).

LGBT rights are not only complicit in imperialism, but rather originate as part of the project of imperialism.