A South African victim of “corrective rape.”
Some stories are so sad and tragic that you just gape. Here is a report from Reuters:
Gangs of South African men are raping lesbians in the belief it will “cure” the women’s sexual orientation, an aid agency said Friday. NGO ActionAid said in a report titled “Hate Crimes: the rise of corrective rape in South Africa” lesbians were increasingly at risk of rape, particularly in South African townships where homosexuality is largely taboo.
A South African victim of “corrective rape.”
Some stories are so sad and tragic that you just gape. Here is a report from Reuters:
Gangs of South African men are raping lesbians in the belief it will “cure” the women’s sexual orientation, an aid agency said Friday. NGO ActionAid said in a report titled “Hate Crimes: the rise of corrective rape in South Africa” lesbians were increasingly at risk of rape, particularly in South African townships where homosexuality is largely taboo.
South Africa has one of the world’s most progressive constitutions and became the first country in Africa to allow gay marriage in 2006, but homosexuality is still widely frowned upon and same-sex unions are often decried as “un-African.”
The brutal rape and murder last year of female soccer player Eudy Simelane, a lesbian, threw a spotlight on homophobic violence, particularly toward women.
“We get insults every day, beatings if we walk alone, you are constantly reminded that you deserve to be raped,” ActionAid quoted one lesbian as saying. “They yell, ‘if I rape you then you will go straight, you will buy skirts and start to cook because you will have learnt how to be a real woman’.”
Patricia Nell Warren has been writing about Simelane’s case for Outsports for the past year. The NGO report Friday said as many as 10 rapes to “cure” lesbians happen each week in Cape Town alone.
Click here for a video of South African victims of “corrective rape” describing the terror.
