American Psychologist

© 2019 American Psychological Association 2019, Vol. 74, No. 8, 954 –966
ISSN: 0003-066X http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000557

Queering the History of South African Psychology: From Apartheid to

LGBTI⫹ Affirmative Practices

Suntosh R. Pillay Juan A. Nel

King Dinuzulu Hospital Complex, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and University of South Africa
University of KwaZulu-Natal

Chris/tine McLachlan Cornelius J. Victor

Edendale Hospital, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, and University of South Africa
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

University of South Africa

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

This article constructs a brief history of how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
(LGBTI) issues have intersected with South African psychology at key sociopolitical mo-
ments, filling a gap in current histories. Organized psychology—a primary focus of this
analysis—since its first formations in 1948, mostly colluded with apartheid governments by
othering queerness as psychopathology or social deviance. The National Party, both ho-
mophobic and racist, ruled the country from 1948 until the first democratic elections in 1994.
The acceleration of antiapartheid struggles in the 1980s saw progressive psychologists
develop more critical forms of theory and practice. However, LGBTI⫹ issues remained
overshadowed by the primary struggle for racial equality and democracy. Psychology’s
chameleon-like adaptation to evolving eras resulted in a unified organization when apartheid
ended: the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA). Democratic South Africa’s
Constitution took the bold step of protecting sexuality as a fundamental human right,
galvanizing a fresh wave of LGBTI⫹ scholarship post-1994. However, LGBTI⫹ people still
suffered prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Additionally, psychology training continued
to ignore sexual orientation and gender-affirmative health care in curricula. PsySSA therefore
joined the International Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and
Intersex Issues (IPsyNet) in 2007, catalyzing the PsySSA African LGBTI⫹ Human Rights
Project in 2012 and two pioneering publications: a position statement on affirmative practice
in 2013, and practice guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and
gender-diverse people in 2017. This article traces a neglected history of South African
psychology, examining the political, social, and institutional factors that eventually enabled
the development of LGBTI⫹ affirmative psychologies.

Public Significance Statement

This article traces the impact and history of apartheid on LGBTI⫹ rights and research in South
African psychology, and focuses on how postapartheid, organized psychology made it possible for
the eventual development of Africa’s first practice guidelines for psychology professionals working
with sexually and gender-diverse people.

Keywords: sexual and gender diversity, organized psychology, South Africa, history of
psychology, LGBTI

Editor’s note. This article is part of a special issue, “Fifty Years Since Natal; X Juan A. Nel, Department of Psychology, University of South Africa;
Stonewall: The Science and Politics of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diver- X Chris/tine McLachlan, Department of Psychology, Edendale Hospital,
sity,” published in the November 2019 issue of American Psychologist. Al- Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, and Department of Psychology, University
exandra Rutherford and Peter Hegarty served as editors of the special issue, of South Africa; Cornelius J. Victor, Department of Psychology, University of
with Anne E. Kazak as advisory editor. South Africa.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sun-
Authors’ note. X Suntosh R. Pillay, Department of Psychology, King tosh R. Pillay, Department of Psychology, King Dinuzulu Hospital
Dinuzulu Hospital Complex, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and Department of Complex, P.O. Box Dormerten, 4015, South Africa. E-mail: suntoshpillay@
Psychiatry, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu- gmail.com

954
 QUEERING THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHOLOGY 955

Cape (Nicholas, 2014). It was only much later, in 1948, that

the South African Psychological Association (SAPA) was
founded, marking the start of organized psychology in the
country, only a few months after the right-wing National
Party came into power. An architect of apartheid, Hendrik
Verwoerd, was himself a psychologist (and sociologist) and
a prominent member of SAPA, helping the profession col-
lude with the government to sustain racist ideologies,
mostly by conducting pseudoscientific studies “confirming”
the inferiority of Black people (see Nicholas & Cooper,
1990, for a full account). Of the numerous racist laws it
enacted, it was the Immorality Act of 1957 that allowed
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successive apartheid governments, though illegitimately

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elected by the White minority population, to police “im-

moral” sexual behavior, which included sex between differ-
ent race groups, and male homosexuality. Interracial sex
was especially criminalized to preserve the perceived “pu-
rity” of the White “race.” De Vos (1996), Potgieter (1997a),
Suntosh R.
and Ratele (2001) have provided detailed analyses of how
Pillay
apartheid legislation regulated the intimate lives of its citi-
Photo by Joe Wesley
zens. Intersections between “race” and sexuality showed
that apartheid was not just racist but also hypermasculine
This article traces a neglected history of psychology in and heterosexist.
South Africa, focusing specifically on the relevant political, Most notably, in what has been referred to as South
social, and institutional antecedents that eventually carved Africa’s “Stonewall” moment, because it became a catalyst
the conditions and necessitated the development of lesbian, for the law reform movement in South Africa (Mbali, 2009),
gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI⫹) affirma- police in 1966 raided a private party of 300 gay White men
tive psychologies in the postapartheid context. All of the in affluent Forest Town, Johannesburg, dubbed the “Forest
current authors are insiders to parts of these histories and Town raid.” Here, nine “drag queens” participating in what
discuss the evolving contexts that influenced the eventual was deemed improper acts were arrested, and other party
development of the Practice Guidelines for Psychology goers were intimidated by the police (Gevisser & Cameron,
Professionals Working with Sexually and Gender-Diverse 1994). The high profile raid brought the gay subculture into
People (McLachlan, Nel, Pillay, & Victor, 2019; Psycho- public view, triggering “moral panics” in the apartheid state
logical Society of South Africa [PsySSA], 2017), the first about rising “indecency” (du Pisani, 2001, p. 167). Then, in
such document on the African continent. Drawing attention 1967, England decriminalized consensual, private, same-
to how a critical psychological science can be used for sex relations between men over Age 21. These events
mental health advocacy, within an organized psychology sparked controversy in South Africa, whose own history of
space—the PsySSA—this article explores shifting historical criminalizing consensual same-sex activity was a legacy of
contexts that enabled us to reach this point. In so doing, we its British colonial laws. A special parliamentary committee
problematize how psychology’s voice (and silence) in the was set up in 1968 to receive public comment on whether
antiapartheid movements for equality and social justice existing laws should be hardened or relaxed, triggering one
rarely intersected with any critical scholarship around sex- of the biggest public debates on “homosexuality” in apart-
ual orientation or gender diversity. This created a void in heid’s history (du Pisani, 2012). The Select Committee,
psychology during apartheid, in favor of the primary strug- composed of nine White male members, received 35 indi-
gle for democracy and racial equality. We examine how vidual submissions, called 22 witnesses, and had organiza-
postapartheid, organized psychology created an enabling tional submissions from churches; government agencies;
space for local LGBTI⫹ psychology to finally come out of Departments of Psychology at the Universities of Pretoria,
the academic closet and into (inter)national consciousness. South Africa, Witwatersrand, Cape Town, and the Rand
Afrikaans University; the National Society of Neurologists
and Psychiatrists; and SAPA (Select Committee, 1968).
Psychology, Sexuality, and Apartheid:
Psychiatrists and psychologists mostly argued that homo-
A Brief History
sexuality should be decriminalized but not necessarily de-
The first formal psychology department in South Africa pathologized as a mental illness (Select Committee, 1968,
began in 1917 at Stellenbosch University, located in the p. 82). Grundlingh’s (2011) analysis suggests that psychol-
 956 PILLAY, NEL, MCLACHLAN, AND VICTOR

White South African males over the age of 16 and lasted

until 1991. Within this period, the army began the notorious
“Aversion Project” from 1969 to 1987, in which gay men, if
discovered or suspected, were removed from duty and sent
for treatment, usually to a psychologist and/or psychiatrist,
in order to “cure” them and “convert” them to heterosexu-
ality. This included aversion shock therapy, chemical cas-
tration, or coercive sexual realignment surgeries at a mili-
tary hospital in Pretoria to “correct” people’s same-sex
attraction (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1998).
The aggressively binary hetero-cis-normative institutional
culture of the military (and the sociopolitical milieu in
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which it existed) reinforced a culture of silence among gay

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soldiers, who, if outed, would be humiliated, harassed,

sexually shamed, and endangered (Balkan & Canaday,
2010). Krouse (1994, p. 211) noted that “not every gay is
arrested and tried, or insulted and assaulted. But there is an
ever-present threat.” This remains one of the most scandal-
ous violations of health professional ethics in South Africa
Juan A. Nel (Hoad, Martin, & Reid, 2005). Van Zyl, de Gruchy, Lap-
insky, Lewin, and Reid (1999) published a detailed, inter-
disciplinary report documenting the gross human rights
ogists and psychiatrists tended to argue for leniency and had abuses of White gay and lesbian conscripts in the South
liberal views about homosexuality, despite the dominant African Defense Force by health workers during that apart-
disease discourse of sexual diversity at the time, coinciding heid era. The report is replete with stories of psychologists
with the publication of the second edition of the Diagnostic colluding with psychiatrists, despite some ambivalence.
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psy- Van Zyl et al. concluded,
chiatric Association, 1968), which classified homosexuality
as “sexual deviance.” Jones (2008, p. 397) also argued that All the psychologists who were interviewed for the project,
regardless of when they had served in the armed forces,
“While many practitioners did support heteropatriarchal
showed a liberal attitude toward homosexuality, indicating
ideals of sexuality and normality, practitioners held dispa-
that different ideas and practices were accepted and used in
rate ideas about the etiology and treatment of homosexuality South Africa at that time. Yet again we see the operation of
that sometimes, but not always, supported the Nationalist dual loyalties— conflict between the institutional practice, and
government’s objectives.” client’s interest. (p. 75)
Ultimately, an unintended positive consequence of the
parliamentary debate was the prevention of a blanket crim- The view that psychology willingly and sometimes ambiva-
inalization of same-sex activity, even though the National lently colluded with apartheid, to the detriment of LGBTI⫹
Party took a tougher line in its new Immorality Amendment individuals, is also supported by Suffla, Stevens, and Seedat
Act of 1969, such as increasing the age of consent from 16 (2001, p. 28), who argued that organized psychology has
to 19 years old for same-sex activities only. Apartheid laws consistently upheld the dominant status quo: “Organized
remained curiously silent about lesbian relations, and it was psychology’s historical role and evolution has often mim-
only in 1988 that the renamed Sexual Offenses Act was icked & mirrored sociohistorical developments within the
extended to outlaw “immoral or indecent acts between South African social formation at different historical junc-
women or girls under 19.” Importantly, lesbian relations, tures, thus acting as a microcosm of South African society
per se, were never criminalized in South Africa. Potgieter at different periods.”
(1997b, p. 93) argued that the marginalization of women in During the same period, oscillating between silence and
society was so rife that the very concept of being a lesbian collusion, psychological research coming out of the mostly
was ironically rendered “a figment of the imagination” in conservative Afrikaans-language universities designated for
the minds of a mostly male, all-White Parliament, who Whites only perpetuated the disease discourse of homosex-
could not conceive of a female sexuality independent of uality during apartheid (e.g., Loedolff, 1951), and excluded
men. Lesbian women were rendered invisible within apart- Black people in their samples and as researchers (e.g.,
heid’s legal construction of sexuality (Potgieter, 1997a). Botha, 1975; Cronje, 1979; Jacobs, 1975; Kotze, 1974;
Also around the same time as the Stonewall uprisings, Liddicoat, 1956; Prinsloo, 1973; Redelinghuys, 1978). In
compulsory conscription into the military began in 1967 for Seedat’s (1998, p. 93) extensive review of psychology re-
 QUEERING THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHOLOGY 957

profession, such as the Psychology and Apartheid Group

and the Organisation for Appropriate Social Services in
South Africa in 1983 (see Nicholas & Cooper, 1990, and
Vogelman, 1987, for a full account). With “race” being the
most explicit basis for discrimination under apartheid,
all other forms of intersecting discrimination, especially
LGBTI⫹ rights, were overshadowed by the primary strug-
gle for racial equality and democracy. The same applied to
psychologists galvanized to challenge the status quo via
SAPA or the more progressive Psychology and Apartheid
Group, Organisation for Appropriate Social Services in
South Africa, and a new journal, Psychology in Society. To
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fill these gaps, community service organisations (CSOs)

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and volunteer-driven LGBTI⫹ psychosocial initiatives rap-

idly emerged, such as the Cape Town-based gay support and
social group Gay Association of South Africa (GASA
6010). Founded in 1981, it was actively involved in AIDS
work in the 1980s, and then evolved into the AIDS Support
Chris/tine and Advocacy Trust (ASET) before becoming the Triangle
McLachlan Project, which still exists and is considered the oldest LG-
BTI⫹ CSO in Africa (Gevisser & Cameron, 1994; Hoad et
al., 2005). Some psychologists participated in these services
search trends in South Africa between 1948 and 1988, he to also address the rise of HIV/AIDS (Mbali, 2009; Moreno
concluded that “psychology remains ensconced within the et al., 2019).
legacy of colonialism, apartheid and patriarchy” because of Feeling the winds of political change awaiting South
a persistent ideology of exclusion and silence in particular Africa, Vogelman (1987, p. 33) asked, “How do you take a
areas of study (such as sexuality). An additional reason for mental health system that has been plagued with fragmen-
this was the repressive criteria for research funding. The tation, a lack of co-ordination, inefficiency, racism, sexism
Human Sciences Research Council endorsed a conserva- and classism for over a hundred years and transform it?”
tively Christian, nationalist, racist agenda (Hook, 2004) that Indeed, transformation was not far off, but few predicted
forced academics to become apologists of the heteronorma- how rapid and dramatic it would be. In the next section, we
tive apartheid regime. Research thus mimicked society as a foreground some formative events that occurred in the
whole in upholding the dominant status quo, with academ- 1990s and 2000s that propelled the transformations toward
ics—mostly White—themselves being beneficiaries of this a postapartheid psychology. It is not meant to provide a
unequal system (Suffla et al., 2001). It was only in the 1980s comprehensive literature review; rather, it focuses on key
that historically liberal, White, English-language universi- psychopolitical moments.
ties began producing more affirmative research (e.g., Blyth,
1989; Isaacs & McKendrick, 1992; Knight, 1989; Tucker,
1986), in a decade that saw some psychologists speak up Toward a Postapartheid Psychology
against these injustices. In 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally released after 27
years of political imprisonment. By 1993, a globally lauded
Psychology (Finally) Fights Back? interim Constitution was drafted that forbade any irrational
As South Africa became increasingly isolated from the discrimination. Its ground-breaking Bill of Rights contained
international world during the 1970s and 1980s due to an equality clause sensitive to undoing the intersectional
economic sanctions and an academic boycott, the internal violence of apartheid. The Constitution (Republic of South
response by government was increased militarization. This Africa, 1996) Section 9(1) broadly states, “Everyone is
intensified the struggle for racial equality by antiapartheid equal before the law and has the right to equal protection
movements, especially the Black Consciousness Movement, and benefit of the law.” Section 9(3) specifically states,
the African National Congress, and the United Democratic “The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indi-
Front. This realignment of antiapartheid protest in the 1980s rectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including
triggered a major reassessment of the relationship between race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social
psychological science and sociopolitical change, resulting origin, color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion,
in the formation of critical, antiapartheid groups within the conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.”
 958 PILLAY, NEL, MCLACHLAN, AND VICTOR

linities studies scholar and subsequent president of PsySSA,

initiated a Boys, Men, and Masculinities Interest Group, to
extend related work in psychology (Ratele et al., 2007) at
the same time that the LGBTI⫹ Interest Group was born in
2007 (Nel, Mitchell, & Lubbe-De Beer, 2010).
As democratic freedoms took flight and local LGBTI⫹
scholarship gained traction, the first gay and lesbian studies
academic colloquium ever held in South Africa took place
in October 1995 in Cape Town (Nel, 1995), and the South
African Medical Association offered a public apology for
their past wrongdoings in the Aversion Project (Van der
Linde, 1995). By 1997, the Gay and Lesbian Archives
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began as a project of the South African History Archive

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(Manion & Morgan, 2006; Morgan & Wieringa, 2005). A

pioneering collection of essays and photographs on contem-
porary LGBT families in South Africa was later coedited by
an educational psychologist (and former chair of PsySSA’s
Sexuality and Gender Division that was later borne) and
supported by the Gay and Lesbian Archives (Lubbe-De
Cornelius J.
Beer & Marnell, 2013). In 1999, the International Lesbian,
Victor
Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, founded in
1978, held its 19th world conference in Johannesburg—the
This was the first time in history that any country had first time that this was hosted on the African continent.
taken such a progressive step, by enshrining the fundamen- Matebeni (2011) reflects on how these new academic spaces
tal right to sexual orientation in its most supreme law. created powerful opportunities for both personal and pro-
Gevisser and Cameron (1994, p. x) recalled that “the gay fessional growth. However, some spaces remained resistant
equality clause slipped quietly into the interim Constitution, to change, particularly the traditionally Afrikaans universi-
with little public debate. But the apparent consensus on the ties that aligned themselves with the apartheid regime. Sex-
issue is fragile indeed. South Africa remains, in parts, a ual diversity still featured as pathology or deviance in
deeply conservative and religious land.” Despite some pro- curricula in psychology, social work, and criminology at
tests by conservative Christian and Muslim groups, the final some universities until fairly recently. Heterosexist ortho-
Constitution (Republic of South Africa, 1996) was signed doxy also remained entrenched, as Potgieter recalled, when
into effect on May 10, 1996, by then President Mandela, she was warned that her doctoral degree—a pioneering
whose political party, the African National Congress, won study on the lives of Black lesbians—was like committing
South Africa’s first fully democratic election in 1994. “academic suicide” (Henning, 2014; Potgieter, 1997a).
PsySSA’s founding Constitution was equally sensitive to Though she struggled as a Black woman to let her voice be
undoing the historical injustices of the discipline (PsySSA, heard within academia (Potgieter, 1997a), she went on to
1994): become a professor of psychology and deputy vice chan-
cellor of a prominent university.
We acknowledge psychology’s historical complicity in sup- Rapid legal changes were also conferring an array of new
porting and perpetuating colonialism and the apartheid system basic human rights onto LGBTI⫹ citizens post-1994 (Meer,
[and] we commit ourselves to. . . transforming and redressing
Lunau, Oberth, Daskilewicz, & Müller, 2017). In a 1998
the silences in South African psychology [and] developing an
Constitutional Court judgment by Judge Ackerman, he ar-
organizational structure for psychology that reconciles histor-
ically opposed groups. gued that sexual orientation needed a “generous” interpre-
tation in the already progressive Constitution, that is, not
Potgieter (1997b, p. 108) wondered whether the fledgling limited strictly to sexual orientation (the LGB), but extend
new PsySSA, launched on January 21, 1994, would address its scope to protect transgender people as well (though he
sexuality from an affirmative perspective: “[PsySSA] has used the term transsexual). By 2002, same-sex couples were
discussed the launch of a women’s section in the organiza- able to legally adopt children; the Alteration of Sex De-
tion, but at this stage a gay and lesbian section has not even scription and Sex Status Act of 2003 (Republic of South
been hinted at.” Potgieter observed at the time that “lesbian Africa, 2003) allowed transgender and intersex people to
and gay issues . . . are certainly not even whispered about in amend their gender marker in their official Identity Docu-
mainstream psychology journals” (p. 108). Although a ment; and by 2006, same-sex marriages were legalized, as
women’s section never took off, Kopano Ratele, a mascu- per the Civil Union Act, making South Africa the first (and
 QUEERING THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHOLOGY 959

to date only) country in Africa to do so and the fifth in the style, aggressively professional and market-orientated indi-
world at the time (Johnston, 2015). These changes were all vidual psychotherapy industry.”
in line with the progressive spirit of the new Constitution. These omissions were not unique to psychology. Reddy,
The fall of apartheid also triggered a biographical impulse Sandfort, and Rispel (2009) argued that there were profes-
within the profession, with various (fairly uncontested) his- sional silences about same-sex sexualities in the social
tories being narrated. Unfortunately, but perhaps unsurpris- sciences more broadly.
ingly, LGBTI⫹ issues are missing in almost all these “stan-
dard” histories, overviews, and reflections of South African
psychology (Cooper, 2014a, 2014b; Cooper & Nicholas,
A Turning Point: PsySSA Joins IPsyNet
2012; Duncan, van Niekerk, de la Rey, & Seedat, 2001; As indicated, the growth in sexuality and gender studies
Nicholas, 1990, 2013, 2014; Nicholas & Cooper, 1990; and LGBTI⫹ activism in South Africa post-1994 was sig-
Seedat & Lazarus, 2011; Suffla & Seedat, 2004). For ex- nificant. A succession of legislative and policy victories in
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ample, Van Ommen and Painter’s (2008) edited book, a the mid-1990s contributed to South Africa occupying a
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formative postapartheid attempt at historicizing psychology symbolic leadership role in the struggle for LGBTI⫹ rights
in South Africa, omits any mention of LGBTI⫹ issues and equality at the time (Johnston, 2015). The country
altogether. Among its 16 chapters, the words lesbian, bi- proverbially became “a ‘rainbow’ that, indeed, [was] visible
sexual, transgender, and intersex are not used at all, and gay on the world stage” (Nel, 2014, p. 145). Synchronicity—
is only used once in a fleeting call for more politically being in the “right place, at the right time”—resulted in a
relevant research. series of per-chance meetings, among others, at interna-
Even activist-oriented and dissident forms of theory and tional conferences in the late 1990s between Juan A. Nel
practice remained curiously silent about LGBTI⫹ issues in (involved in a then-unfunded Pretoria-based CSO, the Gay
psychology. For example, the first and only local textbook and Lesbian Organisation of Pretoria, which was renamed
on critical psychology (Hook, 2004) neglected to historicize OUT LGBT Well-Being in 2001) and a Dutch international
the relationship between LGBTI⫹ struggles and psycholog- funder at the Humanistic Institute for the Development of
ical practice, and Hayes (2003) was also silent. An excep- the South. This led to meetings with Dutch leaders in
tion was Ratele and Duncan’s (2003) social psychology LGBTI⫹ affirmative psychology that opened doors for
textbook, which had a stronger focus on sexuality and (inter)national funding but also LGBTI⫹ CSO-led psycho-
gender, including a chapter on lesbianism (Potgieter, 2003) social research and programming in South Africa (Nel,
and one on race and homosexuality (Clowes, 2003). In the 2007; Nel & Judge, 2008; Wells & Polders, 2003).
book, Potgieter (2003) tracked trends in research about Importantly, the collaboration with Dutch leaders in LG-
lesbianism in South Africa in relation to changing con- BTI⫹ affirmative psychology also facilitated (South) Afri-
structs of lesbianism, internationally, during the period from can representation at the first international meeting on sex-
1948 to 1988. She critiqued notions of homosexuality being ual orientation and mental health in San Francisco in August
a Western, un-African phenomenon and explored the vari- 2001. It was cohosted by a Dutch psychologist and leaders
ous ways that the term lesbianism can be understood, by of Division 44 of the American Psychological Association
examining social constructionist and essentialist perspec- (APA). It was at this meeting that the APA launched their
tives on lesbian identity and sexuality. Clowes (2003), on first guidelines in affirmative psychotherapy (American
the other hand, focused on men in same-sex relationships Psychological Association, Division 44, Committee on Les-
and how “heterosex” was constructed as normative and bian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Task Force, 2000), 30
“homosex” as deviant in South African media. The analysis years after Stonewall. Initially known as INET, the Inter-
explored how the race discourse was shaped by gender national Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
discourses. These were emerging examples of a critical Transgender and Intersex Issues (now IPsyNET) was sim-
LGBTI⫹ psychology. ilarly established at the meeting— composed of national,
Reflecting on 30 years of research in the independently multinational, and international psychological associa-
published Psychology in Society, Foster (2014, p. 46) noted tions—aimed at furthering LGBT affirmative psychological
that only by the late 1990s was there “greater attention to practice; however, they only began meeting in monthly
gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, male violence and a more conference calls in May 2005 (IPsyNet, 2013). Therefore,
firm turn to the label of critical psychology.” Yet in the first when PsySSA joined the IPsyNet in 2007, it was one of the
review of postapartheid critical psychology, Painter and first national associations to do so, and this signaled a
Terre Blanche (2004, p. 521), although optimistic about the significant turning point in South African organized psy-
state of the field, neglected to discuss LGBTI⫹ scholarship chology’s commitment to LGBTI⫹ scholarship.
and argued that “since 1994 both mainstream and critical PsySSA quickly began to play a critical role in related
forms of psychology have flowered in South Africa [but] national and regional initiatives, and a PsySSA LGBTI⫹
the growth area of psychology is still toward an American- Interest Group was formed in 2007 (Nel et al., 2010). Borne
 960 PILLAY, NEL, MCLACHLAN, AND VICTOR

from this involvement, among others, was a letter in 2008 to try as “progressive prudes,” that is, despite largely con-
the editor of a prominent Jewish newspaper, discouraging servative opinions, there was some positive, progressive
the use of reparative therapy; an open letter in 2010 to change. The survey found that 51% of South Africans
Ugandan President Museveni, opposing the Ugandan Anti- believe that gay people should have the same human
Homosexuality Bill (which was nevertheless signed into rights as all other citizens, but 72% of respondents felt
law in 2014, although overturned on constitutional grounds that same-sex sexual activity was “morally wrong.” This
shortly thereafter); an open statement in 2011 against the project included the involvement of several psycholo-
stand of South African representatives who voted to remove gists, including Pierre Brouard and Cornelius J. Victor.
a reference to sexual orientation from a United Nations The progressive legal framework for LGBTI⫹ people
resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execu- to enjoy equal citizenship thus did not prevent wide-
tions, and other killings (PsySSA, 2011); and an amicus spread prejudice, discrimination, and violence in many
brief in 2013 on the negative effects of homophobic hate parts of the country (Human Rights Watch, 2011). The
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speech in the South African Human Rights Commission v. Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrim-
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Jon Qwelane case that eventually served before the Equality ination Act (Republic of South Africa, 2000) allowed the
Court in 2017 (Judge & Nel, 2018). IPsyNet has also setting up of Equality Courts to realize the rights set out
facilitated funding on an ongoing basis via the Arcus Foun- in the Constitution, but these were underutilized due to a
dation—a charitable foundation focused on issues related to lack of awareness (Kimmie, 2015). A new approach was
LGBT rights, social justice, and conservation. This funding needed, so in 2014, the then Department of Justice and
support accelerated LGBTI⫹ psychology toward the estab- Constitutional Development (2014) convened key stake-
lishment of the PsySSA African LGBTI⫹ Human Rights holders onto a National Task Team in order to develop an
Project in 2011 and the growth of the Interest Group into an intervention strategy with a LGBTI⫹ hate victimization
official Sexuality and Gender Division, launched in 2014. focus.
By September 2018, of PsySSA’s 1,822 members, 50 also In the same period a separate, but related Policy Frame-
joined the division. work on Combating Hate Crimes, Hate Speech, and Un-
Interestingly, at the 2018 PsySSA Congress, now-retired fair Discrimination also got underway, inclusive of sex-
Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron delivered a ual orientation and gender identity and expression, but
keynote address on “Justice and Psychology,” in which he was never concluded. Instead, the Prevention and Com-
commended PsySSA for trying to protect minorities, via its bating of Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill (Government
amicus role in the Qwelane matter. He also reflected on his Gazette, 2018) included sexual orientation and gender
personal experiences of internalized stigma and shame. identity and expression as well as intersex vulnerabilities
Cameron played a leading role in the fight for the LGBTI⫹ to hate victimization. The civil-society-led Hate Crimes
equality in South Africa as an openly gay public figure and Working Group, with PsySSA as a member of its steering
coeditor of Defiant Desire (Gevisser & Cameron, 1994). He committee, had played a significant role in the evidence
was also the South African signatory to the Yogyakarta base that informed the drafting of the bill (Mitchell &
Principles (2007), on the application of human rights law to Nel, 2017).
sexual orientation and gender identity. A major reason why attitudinal changes lagged behind
legal changes can perhaps be traced to the politically
expedient myth that being gay is un-African, that is,
Social Attitudes: Refusing the “Rainbow” in
foreign to African cultural norms (Graziano, 2004; Mkh-
the Nation
ize, Bennett, Reddy, & Moletsane, 2010; Msibi, 2011).
Unfortunately, despite this backdrop of progressive This is often used in political rhetoric to gain populist
shifts in laws, policies, research, and global partnerships, support and inevitably promotes silence around LGBTI⫹
social attitudes did not transform at a similar pace despite identities (South African Human Rights Commission,
the post-1994 “rainbow nation” rhetoric. Dionne, Dulani, 2012). For example, Jacob Zuma, president of South
and Chunga (2014; cited in Meer et al., 2017) found that Africa from 2009 to 2018, openly stated in 2006 that
69% of South Africans were still not accepting of homo- when he was younger, he would beat up gay men; in
sexuality 20 years into the “new” South Africa. A serious 2010, the Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana,
structural silence was broken in 2015 when a detailed set walked out of an art exhibition and denounced the display
of questions on sexual orientation and gender identity of photographs of nude lesbian couples as immoral and
were included in the annual South African Social Atti- against nation building; and in 2012, the Zulu King
tudes Survey, a first since its inception in 2003. This Goodwill Zwelithini publicly stated that homosexuality
became the first nationally representative survey of atti- was unnatural. These utterances were part of an ambiv-
tudes toward homosexuality and gender nonconformity alent and, at times, regressive anti-LGBTI⫹ discourse
(Other Foundation, 2016). The report described the coun- overtaking the post-Mandela years, perhaps reflective of
 QUEERING THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHOLOGY 961

a broader disillusionment with the unfulfilled political and August 2013, rather than develop guidelines. Consensus
promises of the waning “rainbow nation” (S. R. Pillay, emerged early in the process to adopt an affirmative stance
2014). This is despite a well-documented history of sex- as the broad theoretical lens for the work. This resulted in
ual and gender fluidity in African societies (Moodie, the use of the broader, inclusive term of sexual and gender
Ndatshe, & Sibuyi, 1988; Msibi, 2011; Murray & Ros- diversity rather than the more essentialist framing of LGBTI,
coe, 1998). which, in turn, led to using nonessentialist language to avoid
forms of othering or exclusion and an emphasis on contex-
tual awareness. The latter meant that the work had to be
PsySSA African LGBTIⴙ Human Rights Project grounded in the small but growing body of local knowledge
Consequently, an initial longer term goal of the PsySSA that was available (see Victor & Nel, 2017, for a detailed
African LGBTI⫹ Human Rights Project was to create a set discussion of the development process).
of affirmative practice guidelines relevant to multiple Afri- The position statement was launched at the PsySSA na-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

can contexts. Representatives from across the African con- tional Congress in September 2013 (PsySSA, 2013; Victor,
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

tinent were thus identified and asked to participate at a Nel, Lynch, & Mbatha, 2014). The statement has since been
precongress workshop during the International Congress of used as a base to revisit the training curricula for master’s
Psychology in Cape Town in 2012— capitalizing on the degree students—the minimum qualification required to
opportunity of the congress being held on the African con- practice as a psychologist in South Africa (e.g., since 2015,
tinent for the very first time. Encouragingly, 2% of papers an annual 1-day workshop on sexual and gender diversity
(48 of 2,223) had an explicit focus on sexuality (A. L. has been included in the master’s curriculum at both the
Pillay, Pillay, & Duncan, 2014), though many more were University of South Africa and the University of KwaZulu-
relevant to LGBTI⫹ issues but had a primary focus in a Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus). It was also a key input
different area (e.g., community psychology). into the policy recommendations of African leaders re-
The precongress workshop was attended by 38 people and garding diversity with regard to human sexuality (Acad-
included presentations by international speakers on their emy of Science of South Africa, 2015), and in the design
process of developing guidelines for their countries. Some of the global core competencies for psychiatrists who
themes that emerged from these discussions included indig- work with sexually and gender-diverse people, under the
enous healing systems; understanding the sensitive differ- guidance of the World Psychiatry Association in 2016. It
ences between taking a human rights position versus a has also informed several media articles (e.g., Green-
mental health and well-being stance in the African context; baum, 2019).
deciding to reframe this work toward a view of fluidity in Additionally, the inclusion of transgender issues in the
sexual and gender diversity; validating experiences of dis- 2013 position statement had the intention of remedying the
crimination and victimization; and intersectionality (Victor, absence of research on the identity, lives, and health care
2012). Eventually, an active group of 24 members, consti- access of transgender people in South Africa (Jobson,
tuting mental health professionals spanning South Africa, Theron, Kaggwa, & Kim, 2012; McLachlan, 2010; Nkoana
Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, and Tanzania, was tasked with & Nduna, 2012). To date, however, there still is no epide-
the development of the guidelines. However, it soon became miological data on gender dysphoria in South Africa
clear that creating continent-wide practice guidelines for (McLachlan, 2018), and trans and gender-diverse clients
Africa, as a first step in this process, were neither realistic struggle to access gender-affirming health care (Klein,
nor desirable. It was, in particular, participants of the other 2013; Stevens, 2012). In only four of the nine provinces in
African countries that warned of the considerably different South Africa can trans people access hormones (McLachlan
definitions of human rights, especially in relation to the & Nel, 2018), and psychologists are often gatekeepers in
acceptance of sexual and gender diversity on the continent. this process. Yet psychologists are mostly unaware of trans
This speaks to Meer et al. (2017, p. 6), who cautioned that issues in health care, although some progress has been made
there is a “widespread perception [in Africa] that human in the last decade (Masetshaba, 2010; Mohadien, 2015;
rights discourse is a not-so-subtle form of Western donor World Professional Association for Transgender Health,
‘queer imperialism.’” Participants therefore decided that it 2011). Although trans services in South Africa became
was best for countries to develop their own guidelines, available for a select few on an ad hoc basis from the 1970s,
suitable to their own local contexts, should they so decide. it was only in 2009 that a coordinated, multidisciplinary
The Tanzanian representative, for instance, indicated that a team finally formed the first trans unit at Groote Schuur
“well-being discourse” would possibly gain more traction in public hospital, Cape Town (Wilson et al., 2014). The first
Tanzania than adopting a human rights approach. Trans Health, Research, and Advocacy Conference was
The South African members then redefined the aim of the held in 2011 in Cape Town. Currently, only two trans
project, and a core group, in consultation with others, pre- clinics exist in our public health care system (Wilson et al.,
pared a related position statement, between October 2012 2014). CSOs, such as Gender Dynamix (in which Chris/tine
 962 PILLAY, NEL, MCLACHLAN, AND VICTOR

McLachlan is involved) or OUT LGBT Well-Being (2007), Although a position statement outlines an official stance on
have often filled the gap for advocacy, lobbying, and train- an issue, there was a need for practice guidelines that had a
ing of health care providers. PsySSA’s Sexuality and Gen- more applied, practical focus to translate a particular scien-
der Division advocated for trans rights by writing to medical tific and ideological position into a set of best practices. The
insurance companies and supporting the inclusion of hor- Practice Guidelines for Psychology Professionals Working
mones in hospitals’ standard treatment guidelines (PsySSA, With Sexually- and Gender-Diverse People (McLachlan et al.,
2015, 2018). A number of South African psychologists were 2019; PsySSA, 2017) was eventually ratified by PsySSA’s
also involved in the revision process of the International Council and two specific committees (the Ethics Committee
Classification of Diseases (11th ed.; World Health Organi- and the Equity and Transformation Committee). Three well-
zation, 2018). This inclusion of trans concerns into the 2013 attended launch events were hosted in Johannesburg (April
position statement departed significantly from related inter- 2018), Durban (August 2018), and Cape Town (March 2019).
national efforts that have often excluded trans and intersex These 12 guidelines were in line with the global zeitgeist.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

people from discussions limited “strictly” to sexual orien- The International Declaration on Core Competencies in
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

tation, that is, an explicit focus on lesbian, gay, or bisexual Professional Psychology of the International Union of Psy-
people. chological Sciences (2016) had just identified work with
Despite these gains, some of the work within PsySSA diversity, be it sexual and gender diversity and/or cultural
went unnoticed. Painter, Kiguwa, and Böhmke’s (2013, p. competence, as key for psychology professionals. As such,
862) review of critical psychology in South Africa praised PsySSA framed the work as “diversity competence”— hop-
the growth in sexuality and gender studies, focusing on ing this would inspire guidelines on a range of other inter-
feminist theorizing, masculinity studies, intersectionality, sectional issues, such as working with asylum seekers, or
gender violence toward Black lesbians, migration issues, with racial sensitivity, or with children. Importantly, the
and post-1994 LGBTI⫹ activism. However, they did not guidelines are aspirational in nature but not legally enforce-
mention PsySSA’s membership into IPsyNet despite this able (statuary regulations in the profession are the scope of
being a significant turning point in organized psycholo- the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s Profes-
gy’s commitment to an LGBTI⫹ agenda and difficult to sional Board for Psychology). The guidelines are also not
ignore: Not only was PsySSA one of the first national specific to psychologists per se but aimed at all profession-
organizations to join IPsyNet—its membership directly als who use psychological knowledge and tools in their
contributed to several high-profile open statements, in- work, and are relevant to other health care providers. Al-
ternational funding, and global scholars visiting South ready, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and occupa-
Africa. This omission is strange given their commentary tional therapists have requested talks or trainings on the
on other PsySSA-related matters, such as growth of an guidelines. To date, no psychological organization in any
African Psychology division and a review of critical African country has published similar guidelines affirming
psychology work published by PsySSA in its South Af- sexual and gender diversity, making these not only the first
rican Journal of Psychology. in South Africa but also the first such document on the
Also, not all reaction to the statement was celebratory. African continent more broadly. Given the recency of the
Although the PsySSA leadership was highly supportive of practice guidelines, the impact of these on curricula, re-
the work, the statement elicited little reaction from the search, policy, and practice remains to be seen. Ultimately,
membership as a whole—whether positive or negative— they serve as a psychopolitical tool for both scholarship and
and minimal expression of interest by PsySSA members to advocacy.
learn more about the statement, resulting in a proposed
precongress workshop being cancelled. Additionally, some
resistance came from outside quarters. Two letters were
Future Directions
received— one local and one international—from reli- This article has attempted to undo the silences about the
giously conservative sources, with one slandering the cur- intersections between LGBTI⫹ issues and organized psy-
rent authors as “flaming faggots.” chology in South Africa. We constructed a brief history of
how sexual and gender diversity has been conceptualized
and dealt with at various key moments in the complex, often
From Position Statement to Practice Guidelines
shameful history of this country. When the gay rights move-
Nevertheless, the next phase of work began in February ment took off in the United States, following the Stonewall
2015, with a smaller core team that included all the current Inn raid, queer activism in South Africa was overshadowed
authors and a larger group of interested stakeholders sup- by the antiapartheid struggle for democracy and racial
porting the team through their expertise and critical input. equality. After 25 years of democracy, and the promising
Learning the lessons of the past, this aimed to achieve better upsurge of LGBTI⫹ scholarship within and outside of
links with similar groups in attempts to create social change. psychology, it is tempting to want to end this narrative on a
 QUEERING THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN PSYCHOLOGY 963

hopeful, optimistic, and celebratory note. However, some that country. This suggests utility beyond psychology
tensions, problems, and possibilities also emanate from our and/or the South African context and is to be welcomed.
analysis. Critical applications of the guidelines in varied real-world
First, organized psychology’s chameleon-like character in settings are vital for its continuous revision and adaptations.
South Africa has enabled it to adapt its colors to the evolv- Sixth, there is a surge in demand for gender-affirming
ing political zeitgeists— ever eager to make itself useful to health care and related professional development programs.
push the dominant political agenda of the particular era it PsySSA is currently in the process of developing trans and
finds itself in. This reactive impulse to the politics of the day gender diverse health care guidelines in conjunction with
appears to relegate the profession to that of conservative other medical specialties and civil society. Trans issues
follower rather than liberal leader when it comes to address- require a more prominent place on the profession’s training
ing matters of social justice or science. Psychology would agenda.
do better to proactively map out its own path based on Finally, all future histories of South African psychology
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

value-based praxis that enables social action (Prilleltensky, must take seriously its intersection with LGBTI⫹ issues if
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

2001). it is to aspire toward a critical psychology of social justice

Second, the related role and relevance of organized psy- that indeed actively strives to undo its historic silences and
chology requires debate. Despite PsySSA being the largest give voice to marginalized, oppressed, and vulnerable
organized body of psychology professionals in South Af- groups of people.
rica, by 2017, its 1,687 members represented only 15% of
the total number of the country’s 10,984 eligible psychol- References
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