Andrew Trench
A TRANSKEI woman, lashed as a child for showing lesbian tendencies, has started Transkei’s first gay rights organisation after years of struggle.
But Vera Vimbela said she was having difficulties in getting her organisation, Lesbians and Gays in Transkei (Legit), off the ground. The Umtata-based organisation faced prejudice and “rural thinking” and had only seven members.
She has, however, been hardened by the opposition she faced as a child growing up and grappling with her sexuality in Mount Frere in rural Transkei. She realised at the age of about 13 she was attracted to girls, and later publicly proposed to a “very beautiful” young girl.
Her actions threw her up against a traditional culture that abhors homosexuality. “I was taken to the headmen,” she said.
The headmen then ordered that she be lashed with a sjambok.
Her parents sent her to a boarding school, hoping her “tendencies” would disappear. They did not and she was expelled.
Vimbela said: “There has been no single moment in my life where I have felt good about myself.”
Until now. She said people were beginning to respect her, and by launching Legit, she hoped to earn further acceptance. “I thought we should start changing people, changing attitudes, making people proud to be who they are.” — Ecna