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In 2006, South Africa passed the historic Civil Union Act and thus paved the way to legalise same-sex marriage – only the fifth country in the world to do so. Ten years earlier, the nation had been the first worldwide to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. While progressive on paper, the lived reality for the LGBTQI community in South Africa is different: people are routinely stigmatised, ostracised and subjected to hostility and abuse. In these photographs from two bodies of work, Sabelo Mlangeni delicately portrays his community, and presents an affectionate and personal portrait of queer life in South Africa, especially in the rural areas. The images of the series “Country Girls” were made in small towns in the Mpumalanga province and show self-determined cross-dressing men posing boldly for the artist’s camera, rarely depicted in a non-urban context; while “Black Men in Dress” comprises a series of candid portraits photographed at the Johannesburg and Soweto Pride Parade.