By Emilie Shimbali
As the world celebrates global pride in June, the celebrations reflects the beautiful diversity of the LGBTQI+ through imagery depicting love in different forms.
According to photographer Geena visagie celebrating pride in Namibia is not a privilege to many as stigmatization and homophobia teem towards the LGBTQI community.
Considering the concept of pride , some individuals brought to life a photoshoot that sparked interest in models and helped define the concept of love in a more meaningful way. Various models such as , Andriano visagie, Donovan Majiedt, Gino Chiappini, Arron Jay looked stunningly well in clothing items of some local designers. The photoshoot honour and bid to show people who they are.
The concept of pride celebration is important as it helps with considering basic human rights, show compassion to friends to live and to love unapologetically. One of the model, Donovan said, “celebrating pride in Namibia is a reminder that the LGBTQI community deserves equality and recognition that will continue to be visible and advocate.”
Other models had different interpretation of love and pride but most importantly they are all looking forward to seeing equality in the LGBTQI community, and that this kind of celebrations are worth meaning to all the people country wide regardless of who they are or their gender.
“It is not okay to bad-mouth someone be it ‘Moffie’/ faggot/Eshenge.I would love to see less stigma amongst LGBTI+ community. The change starts with us,” Andriano Visagie added.
