EARLIER: What Happens When a South African Student Newspaper Lets Gays Kiss On The Front Page
This article was written by David Smith, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 9th September 2010 13.44 UTC
Theirs was a kiss that stunned a conservative town. When a moment of passion for two men was published on a newspaper front page it provoked fierce debate in one of South Africa’s oldest communities.
In a single photograph Bjorn Czepan and Mark Dean Brown became unwitting symbols for tolerance and gay rights at the predominantly Afrikaner, rugby-playing Stellenbosch University.
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Just a month later, there is a tragic postscript. Czepan is dead and Brown is critically ill in hospital.
The students were involved in a car crash in the suburb of Woodstock, last week, the Cape Times reported. Czepan, from Germany, was killed, and Brown was put on a ventilator at the Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.
The hospital said a third student, Brian Kline, was admitted late last Thursday night after the crash. Brown and Kline were critical but stable.
Thefleeting moment of fame for the Cape Town University couple came at last month’s annual Soen in die Laan (Kiss in the Avenue) event at the nearby university, when lesbian and gay students joined the traditionally heterosexual occasion .
The photograph was published on the front page of the student newspaper Die Matie, triggering furious debate on social networking sites. Copies were torn up or defaced in protest but there were supportive comments from gay students.
Vanessa Smeets, the paper’s picture editor, told the Christian Science Monitor: “We knew it would be controversial, but not this level of reaction … Most women seem OK [about it], but a lot of Afrikaans men and African men were very unhappy. Some have been using the paper as dart boards, tearing them up.”
The image caught the attention of South Africa’s lesbian and gay community. Marlow Valentine, community engagement manager at the Triangle Project, Cape Town, said today: “It was one of those articles that challenge hetero-normative ideas. Stellenbosch is a very conservative town and doesn’t like anything out of the ordinary.”
Matthew Gardiner, a friend of Czepan, told the Cape Times: “Bjorn couldn’t understand [why] the Soen in die Laan situation could make so much of an impact, but he was also very proud that he had been able to help people come to terms with their sexuality through that kiss.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
How very sad……..in interviews they said they were simply expressing their feelings for each other like millions of other couples are depicted every day across the globe and it really should not even be a big deal. It was a photo that had worldwide impact…………
Rest in peace and hopes for a full recovery………..
David
Is there any report on the accident itself? Who else was involved?
Blaine Ward
Kind of makes you wonder if it really was an “accident”.
scott ny'er
@Blaine Ward: well, that was my first thought.
this is terrible. life is so short.
Black Jack44
yea thats very sad and somewhat suspicious at the same time. what are the odds of this happening to those two guys? hope theyre investigating thoroughly…
Blake J
It is very sad news.
I am going to avoid any online South African articles about this, because I can just imagine the kind hateful / heinous comments that will be made.
prohomo
It’s always the problem with haterosexual men. They are the trouble makers, even more than conservative women.
Michael
Very sorry to learn of the tragedy and prayers to the families. Not sure I agree with your need to use this story to sensationalize the title.
jd
Seems somewhat random that they would be in an “accident.” Both of them. At the same time.
Andreusz
@Blaine Ward and Black Jack 44: Sounds suspicious to me too. But don’t hold your breath, hoping for anything to emerge from an investigation. The South African police are the most inefficient in the world.
Andreusz
… They can’t take fingerprints! They can’t take stetements!
Max
Terrible!!! Look how many negative energy has been sent to these guys! Probably, this hatred waves also became a cause of death. But if it was the kiss of two girls anybody wouldn’t began to tear this photo to pieces! But in both examples one thing – homosexuality. Why gay-activists don’t specify to this hypocritical homophobs in these double standards?
Toby
Can we have at least ONE gay story, real or fictional, where they gay boyfriend doesn’t die at the end?
jason
Note how the article says “there were supportive comments from gay students”. Only gay students? I would have thought there were supportive comments from students who don’t identify as gay as well.
This is yet another homophobic article from that piece of British trash, guardian.co.uk.
Steve Rienherdt
Because hetros are the only people who should be showing affection? F8ck this bull sh*t. I’m about sick of every hetrosexual. Who do they think they are? You have marriage and can’t sustain it, you’re full of jealousy and envy which translates to hate for others ‘opposite’ of you seeking love, and you can’t kiss (or do much else with your tongues in moments of intamcy).
I would never date a guy who couldn’t hold my hand in public, and neither should you. Stories like this should be a reminder why. We, and our relationships, are no less valid than hetros (and their 52% divorce rates)
Mysanthropic Destiny
Either way, it is sad and…*sigh* I don;t think anything can really be said other than that kiss must have been..
Good for them, about the kiss, but this.. I wish I could convey my sorrow to them and that it somehow helped.
Alex T.
Jason, Guardian is a fairly liberal newspaper – it is definitely not homophobic.
Paul
Very depressing; rest in peace, Bjorn