Despite the progress that has been made to better the experience of queer students at Stellenbosch University (SU), areas for improvement remain. These include the quality of allyship, the accessibility of queer-specific support mechanisms and ongoing religious tensions.
This is according to Raeeza Maharaj, a non-binary student and the education executive committee member for QueerUS, an SU student organisation.
“Stellies campus is not and has not been a safe space to be queer,” said Raeeza. Raeeza told MatieMedia that they recently spoke on these issues at a flagship queer human rights event hosted by the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA) Stellenbosch student chapter.
The event, which took place via an Instagram livestream on 24 August, aimed to educate queer students on their human rights and discuss persistent issues faced by the queer community at SU. This was according to Dale van Reenen, UNASA human rights sub-committee member.
“The biggest highlight of the event for me was the engagement. We had an active chat room with many proclaiming pride in their identity,” said Dale van Reenen, a member of the human rights sub-committee of the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA) Stellenbosch student chapter. (Above) Stellenbosch University students partake in the queer-pride walk 2021. PHOTO: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi
Raeeza spoke about allyship, saying that being a good ally to the queer community involves expanding echo chambers, consuming media with positive representation, and working for heightened queer representation in heteronormative spaces. They urged viewers to consume media that portrays queer people “outside of violence and trauma”.
Meanwhile fellow guest speaker, Simeon Marais, spoke to the importance of diversifying the people one surrounds oneself with, so as not to become close-minded, according to Tajme Maharaj, a member of UNASA’s human rights sub-committee.
Raeeza Maharaj, an executive member of QueerUS, told MatieMedia that visibility and heightened representation in heteronormative and cis-gendered spaces is important for queer progress. PHOTO: Instagram/unasa_stellenbosch
While Raeeza praised the efforts of the Be You Initiative, a campus-wide project to recognise transgender and gender non-conforming students’ titles on student cards and SU’s database, they highlighted the progress still to be made.
“Support mechanisms are limited,” said Raaeza. They claimed that homophobia, violence and micro- and macro-aggressions still plague SU.
Furthermore, religious tensions were brought to the fore during discussions, making apparent the seemingly-persistent tension between religion and queerness, according to Tajme.
“It can be uncomfortable to be in a conservative space like Stellenbosch and hear about how people believe acting on queerness is a sin…even when those comments come from a place of ignorance,” said Tajme.
“The biggest highlight for me was listening to another queer person talk about how deeply affected they were by seeing their correct pronouns acknowledged by the university in a formal email,” said Tajme Maharaj, a member of United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA) human rights sub-committee, on the personal stories shared at the queer human rights event hosted by the UNASA Stellenbosch student chapter. PHOTO: Instagram/unasa_stellenbosch
The event reaffirmed the importance of community, with viewers declaring pride in their queerness in the chatroom of the livestream, according to Van Reenen.
“For me, it’s nice to know that there are steps being taken to try and give queer and transgender students the support they deserve,” said Tajme.
Support systems on campus
The Equality Unit (EqU) works with internal bodies, such as the Student Representative Council and QueerUS, as well as external bodies, such as Gender Dynamix and Sonke Gender Justice, “to strengthen its offering to the student community”, according to Jaco Brink, head of SU’s EqU.
“Unfortunately, it is also the university’s experience that in spite of the services provided, the uptake of these services is often minimal,” claimed Brink. “Students or staff affected by unfair discrimination of some sort are encouraged to report these to the Equality Unit in order to be followed up. The Equality Unit’s website provides information and support services.”