ABSTRACT

This letter was originally published in Gay Community News, and was sent by the South African gay activist Tseko Simon Nkoli, who was on trial with eighteen other defendants charged with treason against the apartheid government of South Africa. Although his original protest had been to oppose rent hikes in the black townships surrounding Johannesburg, his trial (begun in June of 1984 and not completed as of the writing of this letter) drew global attention from the gay and lesbian community, and the Gay and Lesbian Association of South Africa (at that time white dominated) was expelled from the International Gay and Lesbian Association for failing to support Nkoli. U.S. groups supporting him included the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays and Men of All Colors Together of New York. Stephanie Poggi, cited in the text, was GCN 's features editor. The letter seems to have been written on August 17, 1987, from a date inserted in the GCN text. Nkoli died in 1998.