Mr and Miss gay pride Pretoria 2022

Minentle Mndiyata and Megan Theunissen

On 17 September, PDBY attended the Mr and Miss Gay Pride Pretoria pageant. This pageant which was held at the Barnyard Theatre in Menlyn Mall and provided a platform for queer people of all races that want to express themselves through their craft and intelligence. In attendance and serving as one of the judges was Randall Williams, the mayor of the City of Tshwane.

There were three categories, the casual category, which was accompanied by introductions from all 14 contestants. The second was swimwear and this category consisted of dance performances from the contestants. The last category was evening glam, where contestants were required to answer questions from the judges. The pageant coordinator, Francois Scheepers, said that as the queer community, “we need ambassadors to represent and assist the fight for equal rights and acceptance within our community” He continued to say that “[they] give this platform to all contestants and the winners, to make a difference with running campaigns and charity events.”

Among the contestants was the organiser of Hatfield’s drag show, Aurora Crysis, who came in with a buzz, snatching up second place. Miss Larrisa Vee Jones and Mr Marco Prins were crowned the winners, adopting the grand titles of Mr and Miss Gay Pride 2022. The former Miss Gay Pride, Gigi Mugler, performed a dance routine accompanied by one of the finalists singing and honouring those who committed suicide due to a lack of acceptance of the queer community. During these performances, white roses, each with the name of one queer person who passed, were given to the audience.

A major challenge that has plagued all of South Africa, was load-shedding, and the Mr and Miss Gay Pride contest was not immune from being dunked into darkness. Though this happened while a contestant was performing, the generators kicked in within less than 10 minutes, and the show continued. Even though this event served as a platform for queer people, it was not entirely accommodating to non-Afrikaans speaking people, as most of the on-stage dialect and broadcasting was in Afrikaans. There were also approximately four people of colour in the audience. It was, nonetheless, an amazing event that stressed the importance of inclusivity. PDBY is excited to see more of this pageant and its continued strides to improve the show’s inclusivity for the audience and the contestants alike. This pageant makes for an excellent opportunity to spread the message of love and acceptance for all, no matter their lifestyle, race, or sexuality.

Letter to the editor: the opinions and beliefs of PDBYMedia.

Many congratulations can be given to the organisation and structure of Mr and Mrs Gay Pride. But one concern I had is the concept of celebrating pride in binaries, and the focus of pride landing solely on gay men. The community is comprised of lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, intersexual, asexual, and other queer members. ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’ still promote, a heteronormative standard, in a society in which that already pervades. We do need events such as this, and this event did have an important space in the queer community, but we just must consider the extent to which these events include all members of the community.