A Story of Coincidence and Chance

In retrospect everyone says "I was against South African apartheid," though only a few in Canada actually fought it at the time, and they were attacked and marginalized. All the arguments we hear now about Israel were made by those defending apartheid South Africa: the whites will be driven into the sea; you are supporting terrorists; South Africa is surrounded by backward, undemocratic regimes; South African society is the only society in Africa with liberal freedoms and the rule of law. Even the appeal to the relative freedom of gays in South Africa was made to justify apartheid: apartheid may be unpleasant, but please understand, we have to do it because of all the backward, violent, terrorists who surround us.

The same people who attack anti-apartheid activists today were attacking anti-apartheid activists in South Africa. The Toronto Sun critiqued the South African ANC's call for universal franchise in 1992, saying that "to do so now would guarantee a horrible civil war in which both black and white would be consumed."

Of course, when apartheid ended, whites were not driven into the sea. And the significant gains for queers in post-apartheid South Africa, including the enshrining of sexuality rights in the constitution, happened in part because of queer solidarity movements working with queer South Africans who were fighting apartheid. This is the history we have learned from in our work.

— FAQ for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid