This month, South Ai celebrat the anniversary of s pneerg gay-marriage cisn. But the realy on the ground lags far behd the legal suatn.
Contents:
THE EQUALY CLSE: GAY RIGHTS AND THE CONSTUTN
LGBT Rights South Ai: homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * south african gay rights *
(Samantha Rers)The Unfulfilled Promise of LGBTQ Rights South AiThe untry has some of the most progrsive laws the world, but refuge fleeg homophobia elsewhere often fd a untry that is morally nservative, hostile, and profoundly ’s Note: This article is part of a seri about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall TOWN, South Ai—On a recent foggy morng, Ndodana board a mib and traveled more than 20 to the Ivan Toms Centre for Men’s Health to llect his ee HIV meditn. The gay-iendly clic li a predomantly whe neighborhood of Cape Town, wedged between a strip of rtrants, upsle hotels, and the V&A Wateront, a major tourist bimonthly trip is a long one and, on the surface, unnecsary: Mfuleni, the impoverished township where he rents a room, has s own HIV-treatment center.
Most of all, though, he fears harassment for beg gay. This legal environment is unmatched on a ntent where lonial-era laws agast gay sex are still monplace, and where offenrs some natns face the ath penalty.
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Cape Town advertis self as Ai’s gay pal, wh dited nightclubs, film ftivals, and pri a rult, many LGBTQ people om across the ntent make their way here. The rights promised on paper South Ai rema out of reach for many who need them most, particularly those fleeg homophobia elsewhere. In 2011, the jtice mistry tablished a task force to tackle the phenomenon of “rrective rape, ” routely meted out to lbian women and trans men to “cure” them of homosexualy.
Rearchers and activists say that this unrcuts South Ai’s reputatn as a haven for gay rights, a narrative enthiastilly promoted by the ernment and so-lled pk-tourism operators. At school, children started llg him stabani, a rogatory lol term for gay men that he’d never heard before. ”Homosexualy is forbidn unr Zimbabwe’s nstutn, wh no legal protectns agast vlence or discrimatn.
Homophobia is propagated wh church, the media, and by policians, wh state-sanctned harassment of gay-rights groups. In 2015, former Print Robert Mugabe said on the rad that gay people were “worse than dogs and pigs. “They’ll ask you to prove that you’re gay, ” said Ethan Chigwada, a PASSOP staffer who ped om Zimbabwe 2015 after sufferg years of physil and sexual abe at the hands of fay members.