Queer History in Johannesburg

Johannesburg has a deep LGBTQ+ history that reaches well beyond contemporary nightlife. Hillbrow was once a major centre of queer social life, while the city later became central to South Africa’s organised LGBTQ+ rights movement and the first Johannesburg Pride march in 1990. Queer-history work in the city has connected places such as Hillbrow, Joubert Park, Simon Nkoli Corner and Constitution Hill to stories of criminalisation, resistance, community organising and constitutional equality. Johannesburg and Soweto also hold important histories connected to activists, community spaces and organisations that challenged both apartheid and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. This guide is intended as a living introduction. As Infogaytion builds deeper Johannesburg coverage, individual places, people and historic moments can be expanded into their own cultural guides rather than compressing the city’s queer history into a single overview.