Lesbians live in fear of 'corrective rape'

LESBIANS in South Africa are being dragged off the street and raped to "correct" them, it has been claimed.
Sky News has found evidence of widespread abuse against the lesbian community, resulting in a new trend of so-called "corrective rape."

In the the township of Khayelitsha on the outskirts of Cape Town, a group of women said they live in fear for their lives. All of them claim to know someone who has been violently dragged off the street and raped because she had come out as a lesbian.

"We live in a society firstly that sees women as always having to be subservient to men, but it is even worse when you come out as a lesbian, and a butch lesbian at that. There is always that threat that you are going to be raped so you can become a 'real' woman," says Funeka Solidaat.

..Ms Funeka said she had been attacked on two occasions; on the second she was raped. She said the men covered their faces with ski masks and that she had been repeatedly threatened with rape in the township.

But what shocked her even more was the attitude of the police. "I told them I needed help because I'd been raped and I was just a laughing stock, " she said. The police did not even finish taking her statement.

At a safe house in Khayelitsha township a group of women talked. Desire Dudu said she had come out as a lesbian, but warned you risk your life in South Africa if you make your sexuality clear.

In Soweto, South Africa's biggest township, one man roared with laughter as he said lesbians should be whipped. "There is no mention of lesbians in the Bible," he said.

His friends also approved of lesbians being raped to "correct" them and to "teach them a lesson."

They added "women should behave like women" and this was a way of "teaching" them.

Although there is a progressive post-apartheid black middle class in South Africa, views like this are said to be reflective of the masses.

Campaigners say although South Africa has a wide-ranging constitution, attitudes need to change within the police and the Government if lesbians are ever going to be able to live safely and openly within the townships.

The townships have always been the voice of black South Africans, but the lesbian community is a section of society which considers itself ostracized and abused in a country which struggled hard to define itself as a land of equality.