Open Forum: The Fallout from Caster Semenya

South African track & field star Caster Semenya who won the 800m gold medal in Berlin last month has been the subject of much controversy with people questioning her sex and gender due to her gender expression and speed results. After being forced to undergo a series of tests to determine her actual sex, it has been revealed that she is intersex and has internal testes which are responsible for the output of testosterone.

It is tragic that Semenya was forced into the public spotlight in terms of scrutiny over her identity and had to undergo sex assessment. What is the fallout from this, now that we know that she is intersex, does this help the movement by creating awareness or just further create a sense of hostility towards this minority? The media has already used offensive and biologically impossible terms such as "hermaphrodite" instead of the appropriate term intersex to describe Semenya. How does this news coverage boad for the intersex and gender variant communities?

Photo courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen on Wikimedia Commons.

Word of the Gay: "IsiNgqumo"

"IsiNgqumo" is a gay black South African linguistic slang among those who speak Bantu.

Word of the Gay: "Gail Language"

"Gail Language" is an English and Afrikaans based slang used primarily by gay men in South Africa.

Organization Spotlight: Out in Africa - South African Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

The Out In Africa South African Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (OIA). The Festival seeks to address the lack of visibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex individuals (LGBTIs) in South African social and cultural life after decades of apartheid repression, to counter negative images of LGBTIs that prevail in traditional and religious communities, and to serve as a platform for discussion and debate about the situation of LGBTIs in a newly founded democracy.

End "Corrective" Rape of Lesbians in South Africa

There is a high and horrific rate of lesbians being raped as part of a "corrective" measure to alter their sexual orientation in South Africa, with little penalty or action on the part of authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable. Reports suggest that there may be as many as 10 "corrective" rapes per week!

Lesbians and gays are recognized under the South African constitution, but crimes against them are not considered hate crimes. 31 lesbian women have been murdered in homophobic attacks since 1998 and in all that time there has only been 1 conviction.

Please sign the petition telling South African President Kgalema Motlanthe to consider "corrective" rape against lesbians a hate crime.

South African National Party Will "Rehabilitate Gays"

Independent Online, a South African news provider is reporting that the revived National Party in South Africa will allow gay and lesbian members to serve, but that the government will help to "rehabilitate" them. The party is also advocating that the country stop performing same-sex marriages, which became legal in November 2006.

A NP representative said:

"The party is open to all. We don't approve (of homosexuality), but there is nothing we can do about people's lifestyle. We won't exclude them, we will rather rehabilitate them. We regard them as South Africans and we will still serve them," Sprague said.

Contact the National Party via the address and email below and let them know that science shows homosexuality is not a disease in need of treatment and that "reparative therapy" does not work and is dangerous. Also, tell them not to interfere with the constitution which guarantees marriage rights for same-sex couples.

NATIONAL PARTY SOUTH AFRICA (NP)
P.O. Box 1344, Sea Point 8060
Fax: (+27) 086 627 7405
E-mail: mail@nationalparty.co.za

South African Guesthouse Discriminates Against Gays

"A gay couple is livid after allegedly being turned away by a guesthouse because the lodge did not have a policy on homosexuals. Lindani Mchunu and a gay friend, Lebogang Modise, feel downhearted and discriminated against because they were forced to drive through the night after they were allegedly rejected by the management at Dikolobe Guesthouse in Seabe village, northeast of Pretoria.

Modise said yesterday that they arrived at the guesthouse on Wednesday night – exhausted and hungry.

“We wanted to book as a couple and management told us they did not cater for gay people,” he said" (Gay Agenda)

Dikolobe Guesthouse Contact Info:

E-Mail : kmochusi@yahoo.com

Information : +27 (0) 72 459 1861

http://www.dikolobe.co.za/

South African Gays Protest Media 24's Sun Newspaper

"South African homos are preparing to protest outside the Sunday Sun’s offices after the paper published a “shocking homophobic article” penned by Jon Qwelane:

Qwelane wrote that: “There could be a few things [about which] I could take issue with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, but his unflinching and unapologetic stance over homosexuals is definitely not among those.”

He added that he could only pray that politicians would one day have “the balls” to scrap the sections in the Constitution that sanctioned gay and lesbian marriages."(Queerty)

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