A Really Important LGBT Court Case. And It's Not About Marriage

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-25 16:32:00 UTC
Topics:

Corrective Rape

A trial resumed in South Africa today which could have major implications for LGBT rights.  But it doesn't have to do with marriage.  Sadly, it has to do with getting justice for a lesbian soccer player gang-raped and stabbed to death by a bunch of men who wanted to correct her sexual orientation.

The soccer player was Eudy Simelane, and she was not only good, she was damn good at soccer.  So good that she became captain of the national women's soccer team, and coached four separate soccer teams when she wasn't playing.

But despite her athletic capabilities, her assailants saw her as nothing more than a woman who deserved to be raped.  A lesbian who deserved to be converted by having sex with a group of men.

The phenomenon of corrective rape - the practice of raping someone in an effort to change their sexual orientation - is disturbingly prevalent in South Africa.  The country may have one of the best constitutions on the books, but it has one of the worst records when it comes to violence against women, particularly rape.  Estimates say that 150 women are raped in South Africa every day.

150 women raped every day.  That's 1,050 women a week.  Or nearly 4,200 women a month.  Or in really stark terms, 54,750 women a year.  And that's catastrophic.

Simelane's case is an important opportunity to not only address the pandemic of rape in South Africa, but also to put a face to the scourge of corrective rape.  This is a long overdue step for South African authorities, with many LGBT organizations saying that politicians and government officials have drug their feet to combat homophobia and violence.

As Phumi Mtetna of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project told the London Times, "Most survivors of these attacks do not report them. We believe there are hundreds of people who have been targeted....If a lesbian tries to report a rape police will say something like, ‘Who would rape someone looking like you’?"

That type of criminal justice culture can't be allowed to exist unchallenged.  That's the opportunity for the case of Eudy Simelane.  The trial resumed today after a month's delay.  But make no mistake - justice delayed is justice denied in this case, both for the legacy of Eudy Simelane, and the LGBT folks who live in fear in South Africa of walking out their doors and finding themselves targeted for corrective rape.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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