The show host, Isaac Mosia also interviewed the Paralegals, Bonni Nyelele and Confidence Ntelele live in studio.
What does LGBTI stand for?
It stands for Lesbian, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Intersex community.
L = Lesbian describes a woman who is sexually attracted to other women.
G = Gay describes a man who is sexually attracted to other men
B = Bisexual a person who is sexually attracted to other male or female
T = Transgender a person whose gender identity and sense of self doesn’t correspond to the genitalia they arrived with at birth.
I = Intersex describes someone who is born with genital anatomy, reproductive organs, and/or chromosomal patterns that don’t fit the general definition of male and female.
This is all about Human Rights. Everyone has sexual orientation and gender identity. This shared fact means that discrimination against members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, based on sexual orientation and / or gender identity, is an issue that transcends the community and affects everybody.
What affects this community in terms of rights?
- The legal and social status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has been influenced by a number of things such as traditional South African mores, colonialism, and the lingering effects of apartheid and the human rights movement that contributed to its abolition.
- South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.
- South Africa was the fifth country in the world, and the first to date, only in Africa, to legalise same-sex marriage.
- Nevertheless, LGBT South Africans continue to face considerable challenges, including social stigma, homophobic violence (particularly corrective rape), and high rates of HIV/AIDS infection.
Is the LGBTI community allowed to parenting and adoption?
- Same-sex couples can adopt children jointly, and also arrange IVF (In vitro fertilization) and surrogacy treatments.
- A number of High Court judgments have determined that the sexual orientation of a parent is not a relevant issue in decisions on child custody.
- In 2002 the Constitutional Court’s gave same-sex partners the same adoption rights as married spouses, allowing couples to adopt children jointly and allowing one partner to adopt the other’s children.
- The adoption law has since been replaced by the Children’s Act, 2005, which allows adoption by spouses and by “partners in a permanent domestic life-partnership” regardless of orientation.
Source: https://www.hrw.org or www.transgriot.com
