25 August 2009: In support of the fight against violent hate crimes perpetuated towards lesbians, Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) has endorsed calls by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex( LGBTI) activists and human rights defenders, to end heterosexist violence.
Explaining why it is vital for SWEAT to endorse these calls, Dianne Massawe from SWEAT said “this is a human rights violation and we are all affected. Both sex workers and people in the LGBTI community face a lot of stigma and discrimination due to either choice of occupation or sexual orientation.”
This comes after the Western Cape End Hate Alliance together with LGBTI activists and human rights defenders embarked on a public protest and march on 7 August 2009, to raise public consciousness around increasing incidents of corrective rape and violence against black lesbians in townships and rural communities.
SWEAT maintains that while the Constitution of South Africa affords all citizens human rights and dignity, irrespective of their race, gender and sexual orientation, “this does not seem to be the case for black lesbians.”
“It is about time that the authorities take the issue of rape seriously so as to ensure the protection of all women. We want to see the perpetrators go to trial, and the victims and survivors having their day in court”, reads the statement.
The march, held at St Georges Cathedral in Cape Town also aimed to pressurise the Western Cape Department of Public Prosecutions and Justice to be accountable and ensure that the Zoliswa Nkonyana trial proceeds without any further postponements.
In a blog post titled: No justice for black Lesbians, Pierre de Vos, Law Professor at the University of the Western Cape, states that “the fact is that if one is poor, if one is black and if on top of that one is a lesbian one is more likely to be killed in South Africa and one’s murder is more likely to be ignored.”
Nkonyana was brutally murderd in Februalry 2006 during a homophobic attack, meters from her home in Khayelitsha. The case of the nine men accused for the murder has been postponed for more than 20 times.
“Clearly in our society there is the assumption that some lives matter, and others do not”, said Massawe.
She also highlighted that “solidarity is essential in any struggle” and that it was important for organisations to work and support each other to fight stigma and discrimination in society.
SWEAT is a non-profit organisation based in Cape Town that works to ensure sex workers’ rights around health and human rights. They also lobby and advocate for the decriminalisation of adult sex work in South Africa.
“Together we can make a greater impact and start to work with the constituencies that we work with around stigma and this will spill out into other organisations and eventually society”, concluded Massawe.
The 07-07-07 Campaign to End Hate was initiated by the Joint Working Group, a national network of organisations that focuses on LGBTI issues.
The campaign aims to highlight violence perpetrated against lesbian women .
It was named after the date in which Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Massoa, Soweto lesbians murdered for their sexual orientation, were last seen on 07 July 2007.
http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=2247
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Filed under Africa Continent News.
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