Five Hours of Trying to Rape a Lesbian Straight

Millicent Gaika is a 30-year-old South African woman. On a Friday night, she was walking home with some friends after a night out. As they approached their house, a man outside asked if anybody in the group had a smoke. Millicent did. She stayed outside with the man, someone she knew, and allowed her friends to walk on.

A few minutes later, the man locked Millicent in his apartment, beat her, and raped her, screaming at her during the ordeal.

"I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man, you think you are, but I am going to show you, you are a woman. I am going to make you pregnant. I am going to kill you," the man yelled, as he raped Millicent for five hours, trying to make Millicent straight.

If you think this story sounds horrific, multiply it by 520, as that's the average number of stories of "corrective rape" reported in South Africa each year, according to ActionAid. And that number doesn't account for the dozens, if not hundreds of other cases of "corrective rape" not reported.

In South Africa, there is an epidemic of rape geared toward LGBT people, particularly lesbians, in an effort to turn them straight. Yet, while countless organizations and reports have labeled "corrective rape" a nationwide problem, South African authorities have not yet done enough to hold perpetrators accountable, and curb corrective rape's rising tide. It's time to demand justice now.

A chilling video from Channel 4 notes that while South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions on the planet, the country is falling far short in dealing with the epidemic of gender-based violence and corrective rape. The world's eyes are about to all gaze on South Africa as the country prepares to host this year's World Cup soccer tournament. Will the international community take the time to notice that while the stadiums are nice and the games are fun, the epidemic of corrective rape under the radar screen is abhorrent?

"South Africa is the rape capital of the world," Channel 4 says, noting that a quarter of women in the country are raped. By the time they're 16 years old, no less.

How much longer can the government stay silent in the face of this epidemic? Demand that South African President Jacob Zuma, and his Minister of Justice, make this a priority. With a quarter of all women being raped by the time they can drive a car, and upwards of 10 women per week coming forward to say that they've been raped in an effort to "turn them straight," South Africa cannot delay any longer.

Millicent Gaika's story is heart-breaking. As is Eudy Simelane's, Anelisa Mfo's and the countless others who have been swept up in South Africa's culture of rape. The crimes committed against them are horrible. Let's make sure that their pain and suffering didn't happen in vain.

And check out the video below for even more information on the phenomenon of corrective rape.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons