Gay Life in South Africa Not All Fun

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We’ve established that we don’t like murder, but loyal readers know that we do like South Africa. It’s understandable, then, that we leapt at the opportunity to read this article on being gay in South Africa’s townships.

While South Africa has the world’s most progressive constitution (one that will soon become more inclusive with the court ordered passage of a gay-marriage amendment), homophobia still rears its ugly head, especialy in the townships. Take, for example, a young lesbians experience:

I’ve been raped six times, five times just because I am gay. I was raped by men I know, who wanted to show me what it means to be a woman. They thought it would change me, that it would keep me from being gay.

Not surprisingly, the young lesbian contracted HIV from one of the rapes.

As we’ve reported, despite evolving attitudes toward HIV, infections continue to mount in South Africa. While most new incubations comes from heterosexual relationships, doctors estimate that about a one-third of the nation’s homos are HIV positive. A man who called himself “Cassie” and who has been mourning the HIV-related death of his long-time lover, says: “The problem with gay men in the townships is they are so promiscuous. It is killing us. AIDS is killing us.”

It’s not the most uplifting article (obviously), but definitely worth a read…

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