Out of the closet, into a hostile world

‘I searched every newspaper afterwards for a political leader condemning the murders [of lesbian activists] Salome Masooa and Sizakele Sigasa two weeks ago. There was nothing. If it had been any other sort of murder, there would have been an outcry,” says Dawn Cavanagh, the director of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (Few), a networking, support and empowerment group for black lesbians in South Africa.

The recent torture and execution-style murders of Sigasa (34), an outreach coordinator for the lesbian advocacy group, Positive Women’s Network, and Masooa (22), in Meadowlands, Soweto, has put in the spotlight the violent reality faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people in South Africa.

Gay, lesbian and women’s rights activists say the murders highlight a lack of leadership and will to transform these prejudices.

‘There is a general silence on crimes committed because of sexual orientation. There is no natural effort or leadership from government to address these issues,” says Dawie Nel, the director of the NGO, Out.

Cavanagh says South Africa’s abstention, for the second time, on a vote at the United Nations Economic and Social Council to accredit two NGOs that address human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity (Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Québec and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) symbolises a lack of a ‘general moral initiative” on these issues.

UN accreditation allows NGOs to make oral interventions and attend UN meetings.

Nonhlanhla Mkhize, director of the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre, says this indifference filters down from the upper echelons of power to the ground, where it serves to reinforce the prejudices of people working in government institutions, such as police stations and hospitals.

Research into the empowerment of gay people in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, conducted by Out and the Unisa Centre for Applied Psychology, shows only 49% of lesbian respondents report their physical abuse to the police, while 41% report their sexual abuse and rape. The report says 78% of black lesbians and 67% of white lesbians do not report the incidents to police because it ‘will not be taken seriously”.

The ‘police would not understand”, say 66,7% of black lesbians and 71,1% of white lesbians.

Phuti Setati, national spokesperson for the South African Police Service, says there is no undertaking to make police stations sensitive to gay or lesbian people. Setati says attempts to transform South Africa’s police should include the introduction of a new curriculum that incorporates education in human rights and diversity.

Cavanagh believes that sensitisation and transformation are required across all government departments.

Vasu Reddy, the chief research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council’s gender and development unit, says the murders of Masooa and Sigasa ‘were obviously hate crimes” that point to ‘deep-seated prejudices based on social and cultural conditioning” of people’s attitudes to gender and patriarchy.

Statements from traditional and political leaders about homosexuality being ‘un-African or un-Zulu or un-Xhosa” are ‘feeding the violence”, agrees Mkhize, who mentions ‘homophobic utterances” by King Goodwill Zwelithini and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma as examples.

Last year Zoliswa Nkonyana (19) was stabbed and stoned to death by a mob just outside her home in Khayelitsha because she was a lesbian.

The Out Gauteng study, conducted in 2004, has found that among black lesbian respondents 48% suffered verbal abuse, 53% physical abuse and 65% sexual abuse and rape. Among white lesbians 53% suffered verbal abuse, 44% physical abuse and 51% sexual abuse and rape.

Cavanagh believes that if something is not done soon these figures will increase: ‘More people are trusting their democracy and trusting the Constitution, so more people are coming out of the closet and communities are forced to face this reality and their own prejudices. In many instances the result is violent.”

Cavanagh warns against the ‘otherisation” of the perpetrators as monsters. ‘They’re not, they’re ordinary people, somebody’s brother or father. To try to separate them would remove responsibility from our communities and our community leaders,” she says.

While gay people are trusting the Constitution and coming out, the lack of constitutional education in society is working against them: ‘On paper our Constitution is a wonderful document, but people don’t appear able to translate what is on paper into actions in the way they engage with people in their daily lives,” says Reddy.

‘The Constitution is beautiful and rosy, but it is surrounded by thorns which continue to prick gay and lesbian people,” says Louw.