Why I Started Fighting 'Corrective' Rape

Many people ask me where the campaign against 'corrective' rape came from. Change.org asked me to tell a bit about it, so here I am.

I was born in 1974 and my father died when I was very young.

I grew up during apartheid and was very politically active, which was really dangerous back then.

But at the same time I come from a very Christian background.

Once my mother heard me and a friend talking about skipping the country when I was a teenager. It's what activists did back then, and my uncle was already in exile.

I was still very active in the church and my mother asked the church leaders to stop me from fleeing. They convinced me to drop the politics and stay, but one thing they couldn't strip me of was my sexuality.

I secretly had a girlfriend and my gayness was underground.

When she found out, my mom said she would rather be raped and get HIV than have a gay daughter.

Over time, my family grew to be supportive of me and what I am doing. In fact earlier this week when I told my family that I was going to parliament to talk about my gay rights she said "Wow I am going to support you!"

In 2005, my friend Luleka was raped because of her sexuality in 2005. She eventually died.

Then, two years later, my fiance who was raped by five guys at gunpoint because of her sexuality. She was given a disease and died in 2007. Sizwe was her second name.

I saw a need to fix what was happening and on March 31, 2008, I founded Luleki Sizwe.

We believe that in our struggle against 'corrective' rape, the change needs to happen in the areas where we live. So we are not running away - we are based in the black townships, because we are trying to take ownership over the problems that affect our lives.

We volunteer at HIV hospices, go to old age homes and have a support group for lesbian women and women who were raped or evicted from their homes because of their sexuality.

Some of us have kids who are discriminated against at school because their mom is a lesbian.

We also have a strictly lesbian soccer team. We play in lots of tournaments, and we almost always win! The only tournament we lost that I can remember was when I was being harassed.

We are serious about the teams. The night before a tournament all the lesbian girls come to our safehouse and no one is allowed out after 8pm.

Once we held a street tournament in the townships and the entire neighborhood came out to watch us, a group of lesbians, play soccer. After that lots of parents came up to me and told me their kids are gay and they want help. That was a nice feeling.

We are also trying to establish a rugby team, and if you include the soccer teams, Luleki Sizwe is not about 350 women.

We are also about advocacy and lobbying.

The number of women being raped is just increasing. Our initiative is about supporting these women and getting those stories out there so that they can be heard.

Well, that's it. You know the rest!

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