Being a member of the queer community is not easy on the African continent. It is not easy in most places to be honest, but here on the African continent our community faces a number of challenges.
Every year, millions of people across the Commonwealth suffer physical, sexual and psychological abuse and violence on account of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. (HRC, 2018: 19).
Studies have consistently demonstrated that, compared to the general population, LGBTI+ Individuals are more likely to suffer violence in their lifetime due to their non-conformity with established gender and sexuality norms (Blondeel et al., 2017). Many LGBTI+ people continue to report that they live with a heightened risk of imminent physical and sexual violence, which harms their mental and physical health and society as a whole (Blondeel et al., 2017).
Research reported by the Centre for Risk Analysis at the South African Institute of Race Relations (van Heerden, 2017) highlights, for example, that in South Africa, 49 per cent of black members of LGBTI+ communities are likely to know someone who has been murdered for being LGBTI+, in comparison to 26 per cent of white community members (see also Human Rights Council, 2018).
The study also found that black people were the most likely to be victims of physical violence, while white people tended to experience verbal abuse. Such findings highlight both the threats to life that LGBTI+ people face, and also the intersectional nature of such violence.
Hate crimes have significant impacts on individual victims, LGBTI+ communities, and broader society. Every hate crime targeting an LGBTI+ person is a direct attack against their identity and that of those who share similar characteristics. These identity-based crimes are likely to affect individuals and other community members at a much deeper level compared to similar non-hate-motivated crimes (Herek et al., 1999; Paterson et al., 2019a).
In the words of one research respondent: Once you have been targeted because of who you are, it changes you. You learn to look over your shoulder. You have no luxury of safety. You blame yourself; you even question how you were dressed. (Interviewee 03)
For many victims, their experiences of homophobia, biphobia or transphobia is internalised, leaving them feeling that they deserve to be punished for being ‘different’.
This topic is a minefield, and it touches on a huge range of social, cultural, traditional, religious, generational, societal and personal issues.
There is an overarching narrative used by many African leaders that being gay is un-African? There have been many other terms used by the same leaders, comparing us to pigs and dogs and calling us a whole bunch of other derogatory terms. So what is this concept of homosexuality being Un-African? And you may be asking yourself why conversations and presentations like this are important? Why do we need to learn about these things? How does it impact your life and your day to day engagements with the world?
I would like to remind us of our current reality:
In 2021, homosexuality is only legal in 22 out of 54 African countries- and this does not include the entire spectrum of Queer people.
Same sex marriage and Queer family rights are only recognized in South Africa- that’s one in 54.
South Africa is the only country where members of the Queer community are allowed to serve openly in the military.
Discrimination protections are only offered in 7 out of 54 African countries, and transgender people are only legally recognized in 3 out of 54 countries.
South Africa is said to have the highest statistics of gender-based violence in the world, including rape and domestic violence. Since 2000 there have been close to 40 lesbian women murdered and on average about ten lesbians are raped each week by men who subscribe to the view that they are “correcting” the women’s sexual orientations.
We are also only starting to understand more about the amount of men and boys who are raped, or who experience some form of domestic violence or sexual abuse. The latest guesstimate states that 4 in 10 men are victims of abuse. And according to the OUT research, the percentage of black gay men who said they have experienced corrective rape matched that of the black lesbians who partook in the study. In the past few months alone, we have witnessed close to ten brutal murders of gay men and women in South Africa. How many hate crimes like this go unreported on the African continent?
And I would like to remind you that these figures are what we know of from South Africa- and these are the stats that we know about through our local studies and police reports. How much do we still not know about in this country and on the wider continent? And how long will it take for us to fully understand the complete picture when queer people are not protected by the law, do not feel safe to report or talk about these issues, or want to deal with the stigma associated with these crimes.
South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. South Africa was also the first African country to permit same-sex marriage. Yet these terrifying stats on domestic violence and hate crimes perpetrated against members of the Queer community are found in the country where we are supposedly protected by law.
The cultural issues, lack of protection and stigmatisation of men reporting these kinds of hate crimes mean we still don’t know the half of it. There are very few support networks for male victims of rape in our country, or on the continent, which makes it difficult and often pointless for men to report being raped.
When will it end? When will we say enough is enough and stand together in fighting this blot on humanity.