The Forest Town raid was a 1966

police raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law enforcement officers, which aims to use the element of surprise to seize Evidence (law), evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to Tampering with evidence, hide evidence, res ...

that targeted

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

people in

Forest Town, Gauteng Forest Town, as the name implies, is a leafy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies between the busy thoroughfares of Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road, and is bordered to one side by the Johannesburg Zoo. History The suburb was first su ...

. The raid led to proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It also helped coalesce the

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

community in South Africa.

Background

The

South African police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

had conducted periodic raids on other private

parties and also in public places prior to the Forest Town raid. These raids, however, were smaller in scope and not publicized in the same way as the Forest Town raid. As

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

in South Africa grew in scope, it was also important to the government to end the actions of people who were "deemed threatening to white civilisation." Gay people were seen as "bogeymen" who threatened the country.

Forest Town raid

The Forest Town party was held in January 22, 1966 in the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

suburb,

. The party, on Wychwood Road, was meant to be a glamorous event and included prominent gay

socialites A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

. It was a "bottle-party" with guests bringing their own

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

. Around 350 people attended the party. Police, dressed in civilian clothes, raided the home early in the morning and infiltrated the party. They arrested 9 men for different charges, including masquerading as women, "gross indecency" and the illegal sale of liquor. One of the people arrested was

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

Michele Bruno.

Aftermath

News coverage, including an article from the '' Rand Daily Mail'' described the party as a "mass sexy

orgy An orgy is a sex party where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex. Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swinger parties the sexual partners may all know each other o ...

." The press also focused on the professional class, such as prominent doctors and lawyers, who were present at the event. The newspaper even printed names of attendees. The press helped create a fear of "deviant" lifestyles and called it a problem for the white community of South Africa. Later, evidence collected by the police was used to influence the creation of anti-homosexuality legislation. The legislation proposed was introduced by the Minister of Justice, P.C. Pelser in March of 1967 in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

. The new law would criminalize both male and female homosexuality and sentence offenders to prison for up to three years. This is the first time that

lesbians A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...

would be subject to punishment under the law and it made homosexuality itself not just homosexual actions illegal. The queer community became more politically organized after the raids in order to fight the proposed laws. Lesbians, feeling an existential threat, especially became more active. Queer activists created the Homosexual Law Reform Fund (Law Reform) to raise money for attorneys to challenge the proposed law. Law Reform groups were created across the country. The Law Reform movement did cause the South African legislature to drop the proposed law and instead the Select Committee created three amendments to the current law of the

Immorality Act Immorality Act was the title of two acts of the Parliament of South Africa which prohibited, amongst other things, sexual relations between white people and people of other races. The first Immorality Act, of 1927, prohibited sex outside of marri ...

. These included raising the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to Human sexual activity, sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is un ...

for homosexual sex acts to age 19, outlawed dildoes and criminalized male homosexual acts at parties. Black LGBT individuals were also further marginalized after the raids. However, gay culture overall in South Africa found a greater sense of coherence following the fight against the anti-homosexual laws.

References

Sources

* * {{Authority control LGBTQ history in South Africa January 1966 in Africa 1966 in South Africa 1966 in LGBTQ history