Timeline of LGBTQ history in South Africa
Wikimedia list article
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in South Africa.
1900s
1907
J. Glenn Leary and Henry M. Taberer are tasked with investigating reports of “unnatural practices” among African men working in mine compounds near Johannesburg. The Taberer report finds that homosexual activity is occurring among some mine workers and pathologizes such activity as “disgusting” and “loathsome.”
1940s
1948
The National Party is elected in South Africa. They begin enacting changes to the Immorality Act targeted at LGBTQ people. These changes were heavily enforced by the police and used to harass, blackmail, and arrest LGBTQ people.
1960s
1966
January – The Forest Town raid: police raid a gay party attended by about 300 people in Forest Town, a suburb of Johannesburg, on January 22, 1966. This attracts much public and political attention, leading in 1969 to an extension of the criminalisation of male homosexuality. The raid led to the arrest of nine men for a variety of charges including masquerading as women and "gross indecency." One of the people arrested was Michele Bruno, a South African drag queen.
1969
21 May – The Immorality Amendment Act, 1969 introduces Section 20A, the infamous "men at a party" clause, which criminalised all sexual acts committed between men "at a party", where "party" is defined as any occasion where more than two people are present. The amendment also raised the age of consent for male homosexual activity from 16 to 19, although "sodomy" and "unnatural acts" were already criminal.
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