South African LGBT Hate Crimes

Imagine living every day of your life in fear, afraid to venture into public places because you do not know if and when you could become the next victim of a hate crime solely because of your sexual orientation. Every 26 seconds, a woman is raped in South Africa. As this disturbing trend becomes more widespread throughout the country, more South African women are afraid to simply be themselves because they fear the repercussions of living an openly homosexual lifestyle. 

This article is part of a series titled “The Fight for Women’s Rights Around the World,” which will focus on issues affecting women across the globe as they fight to gain equal rights and even basic rights that many of us take for granted. Previously, I wrote about the discrimination some Muslim women face because of the veil-how their right to dress modestly according to their religious belief, and how the right to wear the veil may be taken away from them.

At 500,000 rapes per year, South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world, with more and more of those rapes being targeted at lesbians. In South Africa, homosexuality strays from societal norms. Men in this country engage in “corrective rape” and justify rape to “correct” the behavior of lesbian women and to try to convert them into straight women. The perpetrators think that rape will teach lesbian women a lesson and put them in their place–in their minds, a woman’s place is to have heterosexual relationships with men. In Corrective Rape: An ActionAid report, some of the men say that lesbian women basically deserve to be raped because of the way they choose to live.

Action Aid, which campaigns for women’s rights and works toward eliminating poverty and other injustices, interviewed rape survivors in South Africa in March of 2009 to learn about their personal experiences with corrective rape. One woman named Nomawabo became pregnant when she was raped at the age of 15, and then she was raped again at the age of 17 while being held hostage with other women for three days. When she reported both incidents, the police did little to help her, so the men responsible for the gruesome crimes are still roaming the streets free to attack more victims. In another incident in 2007, two lesbian women were raped and tortured before being shot in the head and killed. The men were never convicted and the case has since been closed.

Not only are rape survivors traumatized mentally and physically, they also face the risk of contracting HIV. As the number of rapes rise, so do the number of HIV cases because women who are raped do not all have easy access to post-exposure prophylaxis, which can prevent the transmission of the disease. Women also risk becoming pregnant because access to emergency contraception is not just a local drugstore away like it is in part of North America and Europe.

The nonchalant attitude of the police in South Africa only exacerbates the impact of these hate crimes. The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, passed in 2000, outlaws hate crimes. But in court, this legislation is usually only applied to gender or race. An individual’s sexual orientation is not even considered a factor in hate crimes brought to trial, which is a major step backward in rectifying the hate crime trend in South Africa. Sadly, many rape cases do not even make it to trial; only one in five cases reported actually goes to court.  And of those cases, only 4% result in a conviction, which means many of these women will never receive the justice they deserve. So, why aren’t more of these cases going to trial? 66% of women who were raped did not report the crime to the police because they were afraid the police would not take them seriously.  Of those raped, 25% of victims stayed mum because they did not want to reveal their sexual orientation to authorities because of the possible consequences.

One of the most high profile victims of corrective rape in South Africa was Eudy Simelane, an openly gay national soccer team star who was gang raped, stabbed and murdered. Unlike many other cases, Simelane did receive justice. One of her attackers plead guilty to rape and murder and is now serving a 32-year jail sentence.  However, the judge did make it a point to say that Simelane’s sexual orientation was not the reason for her death. But, those who have faced similar situations would beg to differ.

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in South Africa also is working to end these hate crimes and works with the police so that rape victims are not afraid to report crimes to the authorities. Since 1998, there have been 31 reported murders of lesbians in South Africa, but only one conviction. The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project is working to change that.

Still, the hate crimes are not silencing all lesbian women in South Africa. The women who make up The Chosen Few, a lesbian soccer team that was founded in Johannesburg in 2004 by the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, freely choose to live an openly as lesbians, despite the many risks they know that they face. For many of the 25 team members, The Chosen Few is the only place where they truly feel at home. Many of them have been taunted, victimized, and raped because of their sexual orientation, but their resilience is truly inspiring. They continue to play soccer and live their lives without apology; being honest about who they really are. They serve as women’s rights activists and hope to make strides through the sport. If you would like to donate to ActionAid or a specific campaign, click here.

Look for more upcoming articles about injustices against women and issues relating to women’s rights. Hopefully by raising awareness, we can all work together to make a change.

Reprinted from Conducive Chronicle

Posted by Victoria Belle-Miller on Jul 5 2010. Filed under News & Critical Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry