Simon Nkoli
Anti-apartheid, homosexual rights, and AIDS campaigner Simon Tseko Nkoli was from South Africa. Nkoli was born in Soweto to a family who spoke seSotho. Nkoli joined the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Students to become a young activist against apartheid. He joined the predominantly white Gay Association of South Africa (GASA) in 1983. Nkoli said in a letter to his lover Roy Shepherd from jail in 1985 that "GASA has done nothing for me since I was arrested", despite the fact that he also stated that "certain individual members of GASA are seeing me" and that "I will remain a member of Gasa always".
The following year, he expressed his frustration with GASA's lack of support in a letter, saying he was "absolutely mad to read about me being arrested on 'irrelevant' issues to gay related matters". Nkoli spoke in protests in favor of rent-boycotts in the Vaal townships. In 1984, he was arrested and tried for treason together with twenty-one other political figures in the Delmas Treason Trial, sometimes known as the Delmas 22, which also included Popo Molefe and Patrick Lekota. He contributed to the African National Congress's change of heart towards LGBT rights by coming out while incarcerated. 1988 saw his release from jail after being found not guilty. He organized South Africa's first-ever Homosexual Pride march in Johannesburg and was the country's first openly gay activist to meet Nelson Mandela. He developed HIV and died at the age of 41.
Detailed information:
Full name: Simon Tseko Nkoli
Date of birth: 26 November 1957
Date of death: 30 November 1998
Known for:
- The first gay activists to meet with President Nelson Mandela
- Founder of the Gay and Lesbian Organization of the Witwatersrand (GLOW)
- A member of International Lesbian and Gay Association board
