The impermanence of it all: two South African gay students suffer tragic accident

This photo above caused a stir in South Africa after it was published on the front page of Stellenbosch University's student paper. The photo was taken at the Soen in die Laan, a traditionally heterosexual college event which the gay and lesbian students, including Bjorn Czepan and Dean Vorster smooching above, had decided to join to make a statement about gay rights.

Now this disturbing news from Towleroad:

In a single photograph Bjorn Czepan and Dean Vorster became unwitting symbols for tolerance and gay rights at the predominantly Afrikaner, rugby-playing Stellenbosch University.

Just a month later, there is a tragic postscript. Czepan is dead and Vorster is critically ill in hospital after a car crash.

The students were involved in an accident in Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town, last week, the Cape Times reported.