The Pink Line: LGBTQ+ Rights Around the World

About the project

This special online Commonwealth Writers Conversation brings together Kenyan writer and activist Kevin Mwachiro, with South African author Mark Gevisser and fellow African activists Nickita Maesela and Xeenarh Mohammed to discuss the themes which permeate Mark Gevisser’s book, ‘The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers’. The panel ended the session by answering questions from the live-audience.

Drawing from their wide knowledge and experience of LGBTQ+ rights and activism on the African continent and further afield, the panellists explored:

• the importance of writers and gay icons in shifting the narrative around queerness
• the gains and losses of the past decade; and the impact of colonialism and globalisation
• the ‘awkward dance’ between legal reform and social change
  the role of the Church in the debate around issues of gender identity and sexuality in Africa

Central to this conversation is Mark Gevisser’s new book, The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers—one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Reads of 2020.

Six years in the making, The Pink Line follows protagonists from nine countries across four continents to tell the story of how LGBTQ+ rights became one of the world’s central human rights frontiers in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The Pink Line folds intimate and deeply affecting stories of individuals, families and communities into a definitive account of how the world has changed for LGBTQ+ people, so dramatically, in such a short space of time.

‘The panel recognised that the internet offers queer Africans a space to connect, see, listen, and read their stories. As Nickita Maesela beautifully stated, “We have words and movements to say we are here…These words are helping reclaim African queerness; they are reinstating African queer stories in the story of Africa.’”‘

Kevin Mwachiro, Panel Chair

Read Panel Chair Kevin Mwachiro’s blog ‘A Very Pink Line’ about the Commonwealth Writers Conversation here.