Homophobia - still raising its ugly head

People around the world face violence and inequality— and sometimes torture, even execution—because of who they love, how they look, or who they are.

In this day and age, particularly in the liberated western world where a person’s sexual identity should no longer an issue, more and more often we are hearing reports of homophobia and homophobic attacks on the LGBTQI+ community. Here in South Africa, homophobic attacks are commonplace with transgender violence and violence against lesbians, particularly black lesbians, continues unabated. This year alone there have been a number of murders of transgender members of our community and despite repeated calls and petitions for the government to declare homophobia a hate crime, they continue to drag their heels. Human rights and LGBTI+ organisations are calling for the government to enact the Prevention

and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill

B9 of 2019 — that would help protect marginalised groups from hate, bias, prejudice, or intolerance. In his Freedom Day address President Cyril Ramaphosa called on South Africans to condemn homophobia, after a spate of homophobic murders rocked the country and sparked nationwide protests.

“This is something we should be deeply ashamed of. I want to send a very strong message that hate crime will not be tolerated in our society,” Ramaphosa said.

According to a statement signed by more than 20 organisations, published on April 22 this year, a number of people have been killed in “brutal hate crimes” this year.

They include Bonang Gaelae, who was killed on Feb. 12; Nonhlanhla Kunene, whose body was found on March 5 in Pietermaritzburg; Sphamandla Khoza, from Durban, who was killed on March 29; Nathaniel ‘Spokgoane’ Mbele, who died on April 2 in Vanderbijlpark; Andile “Lulu’’ Nthuthela, whose body was found on April 10 in Kariega; Lonwabo Jack, whose body was found the day after his 22nd birthday on April 17. Phelokazi Mqathana, 24, who was stabbed to death on the weekend of May 1 in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Lindokuhle Mapu, 23, who was stabbed to death in Mfuleni, outside of Cape Town, on May 9. Anele Bhengu, 22, was found dumped in KZN after she was allegedly raped, stabbed and had her throat slit and stomach cut open.

Recently LGBTQI+ students at an Afrikaans high school in the Western Cape were harassed, threatened and blocked from marking Pride Month because it could be “disruptive”. They nevertheless went ahead with a low-key gathering at break time to mark the occasion and were verbally harassed, intimidated and threatened with queerphobic slurs.

In a number of African countries, most recently Ghana, where 16 women and five men were arrested during a paralegal training session for the protection of the human rights of sexual minorities. They have since been released, but “most of them have lost homes, employment, friends and families as a result of this case,” said the organisation Rightify Ghana. The Promotion Of Proper Human Sexual Rights And Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 was officially tabled in parliament last month and has had its first reading in the house. The bill that aims to criminalise all LGBTQI+ people and their allies in Ghana has taken its first step towards becoming law in the West African country.

In Cameroon, Patricia and Shakiro, the two trans women arrested earlier on in the year, were finally released from the male prison where they were being held, but unfortunately, on August 8, Shakiro and Patricia were attacked by a mob in Doula and are being treated in hospital. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch reported “an overall uptake in police action against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Cameroon.”

Uganda and Kenya have also made headlines with their increasingly anti-gay legislation, and in all these instances the South African government remains silent, a totally unacceptable stance especially when these laws and actions fly in the face of this country’s constitution and what we stand for. Pressure needs to be put on these countries through SADC and the AU and South Africa needs to vocalise their opposition to these abuses against our community on the continent.

Graeme Reid, the Director, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program for HRW recently wrote that in North Africa, Tunisia has intensified its crackdown on LGBT organizing and increased persecution of LGBT people during the pandemic, arresting LGBT activists and assaulting them at protests. Algeria justified its abusive conviction of 44 LGBT people at a private party because they had broken Covid-19 related quarantine measures. Meanwhile, gay and bisexual men “outed” on same-sex dating apps in Morocco had nowhere to go after being kicked out of their homes during a countrywide lockdown. The Government of Egypt has even refused to recognise the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” notwithstanding the routine arrest, imprisonment, and torture of LGBTQI+ people there. Adding that “to attack LGBT rights has political currency, but it is individual LGBT people who bear the brunt.” However, Africa is not alone ... recently Hungary, a member of the European Union and signatory to Europe’s human rights charters and laws, passed anti-LGBTI legislation. Poland, another EU member has allowed the establishment of LGBTI free zones! And this from a country that witnessed and participated in the holocaust which saw the systematic killing of millions of Jews, Poles, gypsys, Russians and over 100 thousand gay men.

Yet the EU and the world remains silent...

When racing drivers Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz, and Vettel’s teammate Lance Stroll wore rainbow-coloured T-shirts that read “Same Love” in support of LGBTQI+ rights before the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest they were reprimanded and fined for not removing them.

The UK which boasts some of the most liberal and tolerant attitudes towards our community saw two gay men attacked in Edinburgh’s city centre in August. Eye witnesses said the attackers called them homophobic slurs as they assaulted the men, who the witness said identified themselves as a married couple. No one tried to stop the attack, according to the witness, and some even laughed as it happened.

In the United States trans Woman Shai Vanderpump, renowned “as a fierce LGBTQ advocate” was shot to death recently. She is the 32nd trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming person known to have died by violence in the U.S. this year. “Too many transgender and gender-nonconforming lives have already been lost. We need everyone, in every state, city and community, to help bring an end to this senseless violence and stigma that so often impacts Black trans women”, said a Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative.

In May some gay men were attacked at the beach in Barcelona, Spain. The Observatory Against Homophobia (OCH) president Eugeni Rodríguez called the incident “barbaric” and said the number of homophobic attacks was rising. “It is a spiral to

In Russia, Alexei Zhuravlyov, a Russian parliament member, appeared on TV verbally abusing Team New Zealand’s trans weight lifter Laurel Hubbard, and disparaging out Olympians as “perverts” and “abominations.” Saying “We stand opposed to all this smut and perversion, strongly opposed,” and shouting “We stand against this abomination!” On another TV channel, host Anatoly Kuzichev pathetically donned a wig on the July 26 show to mock Hubbard, calling transgender folks “psychopaths”. The tragedy is that his comical, insulting parody reached millions of viewers and if you were a gay, trans or lesbian person it wasn’t funny - it was insulting and dangerous. President Vladimir Putin’s government recently enacted a series of measures designed to marginalise and oppress the LGBTQ+ community by banning marriage equality and transgender adoptions. The measures were passed with the overwhelming support of 77 percent of voters last year. Russian police and security personnel have been televised beating LGBTI+ activists on the streets of Moscow including the arrest of the British gay activist Peter Tatchell.

It has been reported that hundreds of LGBTQI people are fleeing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan where their sexual orientation is not tolerated and punishable by public execution.

Indonesian officials have used an anti-pornography law to arrest gay men in private settings, while a Malaysian government task force in June proposed amendments to sharia law to curb “promoting the LGBT lifestyle” on social media.

The above few incidents, a drop in the ocean, as every country on the globe from the most open like Canada, to the most intolerant, LGBTQI+ people are subject to killings, violence, discrimination and social ostracism with homophobic attacks on the increase worldwide. Showing that the need for safe spaces for our people everywhere.

Whilst some newspapers report crimes against our fellow LGBTQI+ family, others either don’t report them at all or relegate these crimes to small news items. Some social media sites and digital platforms refuse to take down hate speech aimed at our community - Facebook for one has been found wanting in this regard. Last month LGBTQI+ groups complained to Facebook that their site was being “used as a tool to share hatred, bullying, discrimination and violence, particularly by those with homophobia launching intense campaigns of intimidation, threat and blackmailing”. Complaints over incitement in posts were being “declined because the content ‘did not contradict the Facebook community standards’”

Here in South Africa, The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill would be the cornerstone for protecting the rights and lives of members of the LGBTQI+ community. Gathering dust while violence and murders continue unabated, the bill would create a legal definition of hate crimes, at present there is only a working definition, we need a legal definition in order for prosecutions to be successful and for the police to be made more aware and more pro-active in preventing the hate against our community.

In some countries “LGBTQI+ rights are seen as so threatening, and why they become such a potent symbol in a rhetorical clash between ‘traditional values’ and ‘human rights,” said Graeme Reid

Whilst the incidents mentioned in this article are isolated and a drop in the ocean, they serve to demonstrate that worldwide there is the need for all of us to stand up against discrimination, violence and bigotry. We need to become more vocal in pressuring governments into being more pro-active against those individuals, organisations and other countries that promote, encourage or condone discrimination against our community. Gay, lesbian, trans, bi, gender non-conforming, intersex, butch, camp, fem or simply queer, we are all in this fight together

IT IS TIME TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA FACTS

Violence, particularly sexual violence, against LGBT South Africans is common.

More than onein ten (11%) LGBT 16 to 24 year-olds who completed the recent OUT LGBT Well-being survey reported having experienced rape or other sexual abuse at school within the prior 24 months.

Nearly a third (31%) of lesbian and bisexual women from southern Africa who participated in a HIV risk study reported lifetime experiences of sexual violence.

In contrast, 3.7% of all South African adults surveyed in 2002-2004 reported lifetime experiences of sexual violence.

Gender nonconforming adults, including those who are heterosexually-identified and those who are LGBidentified, were more likely to feel personally unsafe most days compared to gender conforming adults (25.4% vs. 20.7% and 35.5% vs. 17.5%, respectively), particularly when “walking alone in the dark” (51.9% vs. 41.9% and 45.5% vs. 20.2%, respectively).

Estimates of suicidality among LGBT people vary; however, most studies report rates that far exceed the lifetime suicide attempt rate (2.9%) observed in the general population in 2002-2004.

In 2004, 17% of LGBT individuals in KwaZulu-Natal and 21% in Gauteng14 surveyed for the OUT Study reported lifetime suicide attempts.

Nearly half (48%) of health sector workers who completed the 2015/2016 SASAS endorsed statements that they “think it is disgusting when men dress like women and women dress like men,” and 42% indicated that they “think gay men [and lesbians] are disgusting.”

Taken from THE ECONOMIC COST OF LGBT STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION IN SOUTH AFRICA - December 2019 UCLA School of Law Williams Institute