'69

Boys getting down like its 1966 (pic stolen from here)

Immorality Amendment Act of 1969

3. The following section is hereby inserted in the principal Act after section 20:
“Acts committed between men at a party and which are calculated to stimulate sexual passion or to give sexual gratification, prohibited.  

20A. (1) A male person who commits with another male person at a party an act which is calculated to stimulate sexual passion or to give sexual gratification, shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) ‘a party’ means any occasion where more than two persons are present.(3) The provisions of subsection (1) do not derogate from the common law, any other provision of this Act or a provision of any other law.”.

In the same year as the Stonewall Riots in New York City, the South African Immorality Act of 1957 which infamously criminalized sex across colour lines, was amended to curtail gay people's freedom to assemble. This was the result of a moral panic that was sparked by a party in a suburb of  Johannesburg.

The Forest Town raid of January 1966

"Police had heard that a party for gay men was being planned in a quiet suburb of Johannesburg. Undercover agents posing as guests infiltrated the party where they were stunned to find more than 300 mostly white men dancing, kissing and cuddling each other. They called in a raid and made arrests. The scandal made headline news and sparked further undercover operations to find and round up suspected homosexual networks." 

"The Minister of Justice, P.C. Pelser, went so far as to warn parliament that the survival of the nation was at stake. Referring to the ghosts of ancient Rome and Sparta, he thundered: 'Formerly glorious civilizations are lying in the dust and South Africa should beware of a similar fate.  The canker of Sodom has to be sliced out before it ruins the moral fibre of the nation.'

"In 1967, Pelser submitted a proposal to parliament that would give policy sweeping new powers to crack down on homosexuals.  A Select Committee on the Immorality Amendment Bill was then formed to study the issue and make recommendations. For over four months, the Committee heard conflicting evidence from a range of experts about the nature and extent of the homosexual threat. On the basis of these, it finally concluded that the state did indeed need greater ability to repress what it called 'immoral, indecent or unnatural acts'."*

Such is the power of our dancing, kissing and cuddling. 

*Epprecht, M. 2008. Unspoken Facts: a history of homosexualities in Africa. Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)

(I didn't change Epprecht's wording, but cut some sentences out)