LBGTQ

Lesbians, Bisexuals, Gays, Transsexuals and Questioning...

While doing an Internship in Cape Town last fall, I worked for an NGO who did a lot of civic society work and promoted democracy in South Africa. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Heinrich Bôhll Stiftung’s conference titled “Struggle for equality: Sexual orientation, gender identity and human rights in Africa”. http://www.boell.org.za/web/lgbti-593.html

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and I loved it!

Such an eyeopener…

I know quite a few people in Europe who are struggling with being accepted with the more conservative views on homosexuality. Comparing the (at times) very conservative European views with the African views, I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be gay in Sub-saharan Africa!

As one soon figures out after arriving in Cape Town, the city is the Mekka for homosexuals in Africa! This is because South Africa is one of the few countries – if not the only one – where homosexuality is protected in SA’s constitution. This could not be right. Surely, with the African (Banjul) Charter, every race, gender, sex, political attitude and religion was secured within the charter. Naturally every country’s constitution had to protect everyone’s right when the Charter clearly states that everyone is protected…

Surely, I had to be mistaken or I must have misunderstood something. Homosexuality is a difficult subject all over the world, but to hear how in certain parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, you can get stoned for getting caught in the act of ‘having fun’ with someone of your own gender. In certain places you can get away with a large fine (and if you can’t pay, prison time or removal of a limb) if you’re mere accused of acting inappropriately by someone.

At the conference I was told countless stories; of how a gay man  had come out to his family and their reaction was to call the government, who came arrested him. He was sentenced 75 years prison time! A woman was tortured and scarred all over her body because she was caught kissing an other woman. Another woman had her children removed and then her husband beat her within a inch of death, when the neighbor had told him that his wife was a lesbian and had kissed another woman on the street.  These stories horrified me and yet I was deeply fascinated by how different and intolerant some people can be, because it is so far from my own life that I can’t relate in anyway.

During my time in Cape Town I quickly realized that even though I’ve never been rich, I’m still privileged in the sense that I have no doubt that my family and friends would accept for who I am no matter what.  A lot of other people are not as privileged…Many people are struggling to have the equality that I’ve always had and clearly taken for granted…

Christina