Simon Tseko Nkoli - Heroes in Africa History

They blazed a trail for intersectional human rights—maintaining that “gay rights are human rights.”

Simon Tseko Nkoli
1957–1998, b. Soweto, South Africa
Worked in Johannesburg, South Africa

Anyone who is truly committed to women’s human rights must recognize that every woman has the right to determine her sexuality free of discrimination and oppression.
—Beverley Palesa Ditsie, Beijing Women’s Conference, 1995

I am Black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two into secondary or primary struggles.
—Simon Nkoli

• Ditsie and Nkoli are activists who had an important role in creating legal and cultural space for LGBT people in South Africa in the early 1990s. They were among the activists who founded GLOW (Gay and Lesbian Organization of the Witwatersrand), the first national Black LGBT organization in South Africa.
• A committed activist, Ditsie was the first out lesbian to address the United Nations on LGBT rights, speaking at the Beijing Women’s Conference in 1995.
• Arrested as an anti-apartheid activist, Nkoli came out while in prison. He used the moment to try to change the attitude of the African National Congress (ANC) toward gay rights.
• Nkoli met with President Mandela and campaigned for including protections for LGBT people in the new constitution. In 1996, South Africa became the first country to constitutionally protect individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
• Ditsie and Nkoli organized the first Pride March