LGBTQ+ South Africa

Ex Mr Gay World, teacher, television presenter, activist, entrepreneur, and all around awesome guy, you will struggle to find someone busier and more proactive than Louw Breytenbach. In this episode of the LGBTQ+ South Africa Podcast we chat about pageants, activism, mental health, and charities.

In this episode I visit the Aurum Institute Pop Inn Clinic at Loftus Shopping Center in Pretoria and have a chat to Mmakgabo Seopa about mental health challenges and options within the LGBTQ+ community. I was happy to hear that just like me when she favours CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) when counselling.

Mmakgabo Seopa is a 29year old mother of one, who is ambitious, committed and a hardworking female. She has recently obtained her Bachelor of psychology degree from the Pearson Institute of Higher Education (now Known as Eduvos).

She is a qualified Registered Counsellor through the Health Profession Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and currently employed at Youth Health Africa (YHA) as a psychosocial counsellor. YHA is an organization that is partnered with The Aurum Institute and is focused on empowering differently-able youth with employment opportunities in the healthcare sector.

After a bit of a break the podcast is back and in this episode I chat to Bruce Walker, founder and organizer of LGBTI Pride Pretoria. We talk about gay Pride in general as well as Pretoria Pride that will be held on 4 December 2021. All the details are available on the LGBTI Pride Pretoria Facebook page but here is some extra insight into some of the challenges and the purpose of Pride. I hope it will give you something to think about, act upon, and that Pride events will become a "party with a purpose" for you as well. It is also the first episode in which I have to use the "explicit language" tag. Hahaha.

In this episode of the LGBTQ+ South Africa Podcast I chat to Wayne Helfrich about LGBTQ+ people starting a family, raising kids, and the challenges of adoption for gay couples and in general.

I chat to my old friend Chris Taute, the founder of Bearfest South Africa, an annual event for Bears (the heftier and often hairier guys) and fans of Bears in the South African LGBTQ+ community that has been running since 2014.

I spent a lovely afternoon outdoors chatting to local Drag performer Divan Wiese aka Ranon Storm about Drag culture in South Africa, the different types of Drag, and advice for local Drag queens in the making. 

The LGBTQ+ community have a language of their own. In this episode we chat to Grant Towers (Actor, Singer, MC of Bearfest South Africa 2013-2014 and all-round great guy) and discuss some labels and terminology in the LGBTQ+ community and whether some of these are healthy or harmful in different contexts.