We recently posted a link to a series of stories about the ubiquitous hate crime of corrective rape in South Africa. Although corrective rape is likely not a new phenomenon it’s gaining international media attention. Espn’s Jeremay Schaap ran a story in May 2010. ABC ran a story in 2009 that said South Africa is one of the few countries in the world with a specific provision in its constitution that prohibits discrimination against gays and lesbians and its also the only sub Saharan country where there are openly gay bars. “But behind the gay-friendly exterior of South Africa, lies the reality: a society that remains, for the most part, virulently homophobic.” How does this happen?
David Kato, an outspoken, well known gay rights activists from Uganda was brutally beaten and killed. The NY times ran an article that said that homophobia in Uganda is so severe that the “parliament is considering a bill to execute gay people.” A bill that would sanction killing gay men and women. How does this happen? David Kato’s photo along with the photos of other gay men where front page news on a Ugandan publication the rolling stone. Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries and many Africans believe that such behavior is an import from the west. It’s thought that this hatred has been encouraged by conservative evangelical christian groups that espouse antigay and homophobic sentiments. These groups have taken root in some African countries selling hatred as a christian value. Some of these groups such as Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries have been instrumental in spreading the message of hate. So this is how hate takes root and how hate is manufactured. David Kato’s death is an atrocity as is corrective rape.
END SEXUAL VIOLENCE NOW 