Homosexuality, in general, has prompted a number of conversations which until today some questions remain a mystery, which some leads some to come up with their own narrative that they seem to be comfortable with. According to research Thirty-eight of 53 African nations criminalizes homosexuality and punishable by death.
Diversity in sexual orientation whether gay, straight, bisexual or somewhere in between has sparked long-standing controversies across the globe. Recent debates have centered on the human rights for same-sex couples. After an unacceptable remark by a local minister form Musina, CJN collaborated with Musina Advice office to bring light to this unacceptable behavior and to dispel the myths about homosexuality. According to the troubling research, more than half (55%) of us live with the fear that we will experience discrimination due to our sexual orientation or gender identity. And that fear is based on lived reality; 44% of those surveyed confirmed that they had experienced discrimination in the past two years due to their LGBT status, reports have said
The report – Hate Crimes against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People in South Africa, 2016– was launched on Tuesday in Pretoria by OUT LGBT Well-being and the Love Not Hate campaign. A total of 2,130 South Africans participated in the online study, which is believed to be the first-ever national research on LGBT discrimination and hate crimes. Among the most concerning findings are that most LGBT South Africans face discrimination from a young age: 56% aged 24 years or younger said they’d experienced discrimination in school.The report also confirmed that most incidents of anti-LGBT discrimination go unreported. In fact, a whopping 88% of respondents said they had not reported these cases to the police.Appallingly, 41% of those surveyed said they knew of someone who had been murdered due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. The report also addressed the kind of discrimination suffered by victims: 7% had been punched, hit, kicked or beaten; 7% experienced violence from a family member, and 6% had been raped or sexually abused
Our Complex History and human rights of LGBTI people
South Africa has a complex and diverse history regarding the human rights of LGBTI people. Sexual intercourse between men was historically prohibited in South Africa as the common law crimes of “sodomy” and “unnatural sexual offenses”, inherited from the Roman-Dutch law.
But as of 1 January 2008, all provisions that discriminate have been formally repealed. This included introducing an equalised age of consent at 16 regardless of sexual orientation, and all sexual offenses defined in gender-neutral terms.The protection of LGBT rights in South Africa is based on section 9 of the Constitution, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation, and applies to the government and to private parties. In 2012 the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) filed a draft document calling for the removal of LGBT rights from the Constitution of South Africa. The group submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Review Committee of the National Assembly to amend section 9 of the Constitution; the Committee, at the time, was chaired by Sango Patekile Holomisa MP. Regardless of how harsh society has been towards the LGBTI community, it has been their mission to fight for equal rights, which is why CJN saw fit to address this by engaging in a conversation in Musina led by Phale Hendrick for Musina Advice Office.