Progress in fight against "corrective rape" in South Africa

News from change.org on the work of our friend Ndumie Funda. Thanks to the many members of the Gay Games family who have helped. The fight continues!


In late November, thousands of us were horrified by ‘corrective rape’, the increasingly common South African hate crime in which men rape lesbian women to 'turn' them straight or 'cure' them of their sexual orientation.

A tiny group of lesbian activists hiding out in the townships of Cape Town called us to action, and in the 100 or so days since, tens of thousands from 163 countries around the world join in to demand action on 'corrective rape', making it the largest Change.org campaign of all time.

It is with great pleasure that I announce, we won!

Earlier today, those same township activists walked into the halls of South Africa's Parliament and convinced some of the most powerful officials in the country to agree to the long term, sustained engagement of various government arms and civil society groups to research, develop and implement a national action plan to tackle 'corrective rape' and the intersecting issues of gender-based violence, anti-LGBTI violence and hate crimes.

In short: we demanded that the South African government take 'corrective rape' seriously, and they have agreed to do so... and then some!

VICTORY!

Here's how it all went down:

At first, those of us organizing the event were worried, as our plans to bus in hundreds of supporters for a rally were doused by a public transportation strike which debilitated the city.

But much to our surprise, more than 100 grassroots activists from across the city and the far off townships managed to find their way, and a sizable, inspiring rally of support for the 'corrective' rape campaign was held outside Parliament ahead of the meeting.


Various representatives of different activist groups and coalitions then went into Parliament for the long promised first meeting with senior officials at the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development, who flew to Cape Town for the meeting.

Ndumie Funda, the one-woman founder of Luleki Sizwe who started the campaign, began by delivering the record-breaking 170,000 signatures of support from people in 163 countries around the world. She then presented a written statement calling on the ministry to embark on an inclusive, long term and sustained process of taking action against 'corrective' rape, exactly what they ended up agreeing to.

Continue reading and view photos HERE.