Kardashian, Chopra and you

27 February 2013 - 02:07 By NASHIRA DAVIDS
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Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian

You too can have your picture taken by celebrity snapper Adam Bouska and be featured online - with duct tape over your mouth - alongside people like Kim Kardashian and Deepak Chopra.

The NOH8 Campaign's African launch will take place at the annual Cape Town Pride Festival next month. The campaign is a "photographic silent protest" started by Bouska and his partner, Jeff Pashley, in 2008 to oppose Proposition 8 - legislation that would ban same-sex marriages.

The duct tape symbolises "voices being silenced by Proposition 8 and similar legislation around the world", according to the campaign's website.

More than 30000 people have been photographed already.

This year Luiz de Laja, the festival director for Cape Town Pride 2013, contacted the campaign organisers and, some 100 e-mails later, Bouska and his team booked their tickets to the Mother City.

Cape Town Pride is a non-profit organisation that creates awareness on issues that affect the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities.

Since "Cape Town is the gay capital of Africa" it is the perfect place in which to launch the campaign on the continent, said De Laja.

"Any gay person who is either kicked out of home or runs away from home finds a space in Cape Town. They come here, re-invent themselves and there is a support system here."

The city's mayor, Patricia de Lille, will "be cutting the ribbon" on March 2 to start the festival.

"This event is in line with our vision of building an inclusive city that brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds and in which everyone can have a stake in the future," said her spokesman Solly Malatsi.

Bouska will take pictures for the campaign at the Protea Hotel in Sea Point on March 1, and at the Cape Town Pride Street Fair in Green Point the following day.

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