Corrective rape
[5][6][7] The term was coined in South Africa after well-known cases of corrective rapes of lesbian women such as Eudy Simelane (who was also murdered in the same attack) and Zoliswa Nkonyana became public.
Popularization of the term has raised awareness and encouraged LGBT+ people in countries across the world to come forward with their own stories of being raped as punishment for or in an attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
[5] One of the earliest known mentions of the term is by South African feminist activist Bernedette Muthien during an August 2001 interview by Human Rights Watch in Cape Town:[13] Lesbians are particularly targeted for gang rape.
Has it just been under-reported, not studied, or what?The United Nations UNAIDS 2015 Terminology Guidelines suggests that the term corrective rape should no longer be used, as it gives off the perception that something needs to be fixed.
[1] A 2013 global study on HIV/AIDS suggested the term lesphobic rape to emphasize the fact that lesbians constitute the overwhelming majority of victims of this phenomenon.
[3] Others have emphasized that gay men, bisexual, transgender, asexual, pansexual, polysexual, queer and intersex people can also be victims of corrective rape for similar reasons.
[18] Taking into account race and sexuality together is essential when examining corrective rape, as both subjects cross into each other and influence each other heavily.
According to statistics from the Crisis Intervention Team of LGBT Collective in Telangana, India, there have been 15 reported instances of corrective rape in the last five years.
[43] In general, there has been a 902 percent increase in reported rapes in India from 1971 to 2012; however, it is estimated that 90% of sex crimes in the country go unreported.
Some reports of abduction and rape come from inner-city communities, where local non-governmental organizations have expressed concerns about high incidents of violence against women.
[30] In Kenya, perpetrators and supporters of this form of violence claim that rape is a method "to straighten" LGBTI people.
More than 10 lesbians are raped weekly to correct their sexual preferences, as estimated by Luleki Sizwe, a South African nonprofit.
Sizakele Sigasa, a lesbian activist living in Soweto, and her partner Salome Masooa were raped, tortured, and murdered in July 2007.
South African lesbian-gay rights organizations, including the umbrella-group Joint Working Group, said the attack was driven by lesbophobia.
[57] In 2013, two writers from South African men's magazine FHM were fired as a result of corrective rape jokes they made on Facebook.
[11] In August 2011, the Department of Justice established a National Task Team (NTT) to address the issue of hate crimes against LGBT people.
The NTT has established a rapid response team to attend to unsolved criminal cases as a matter of urgency and produced an information pamphlet with frequently asked questions about LGBTI persons.
Radebe stated that the Department of Justice acknowledged the need for a specific legal framework for hate crimes and that the matter would be subjected to public debate.
[63] Cape Town, South Africa, specifically has 2.5 million people and since 2011, the prevalence of corrective rape has only increased.
Research released in 2008 by Triangle, revealed that 86% of black lesbians from the Western Cape said they lived in fear of sexual assault.
[37] In the United States, Brandon Teena (1972–1993) is a well-known victim of corrective rape (and thereafter murder) for being a trans man.
[68] Corrective rape and other accompanying acts of violence can result in physical and psychological trauma, mutilation, unwanted pregnancy, and may contribute to suicide.
[69] HIV in South Africa is an epidemic, and due to homophobia, there is a lack of education about sexually transmitted diseases among lesbians.
[27] Again, in countries like Nigeria where the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013 (SSMPA) "prohibits a marriage contract or civil union entered into between persons of the same sex...",[71] lesbian, gay, bi, asexual and transgender people who are raped and targeted do not have the protection of the police and cannot report rape crimes done to them, as the police are likely to legitimize the abuse.
Apart from this being a violation of the fundamental right to protection as stated in the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015,[75] this sexual discrimination poses a threat to the general health of homosexual people who are victims of rape as they also fear the intolerance and disregard from medical providers, leaving them susceptible to STIs and HIV.
[76][77] Child sponsorship charity ActionAid has published an article discussing corrective rape, and see ending violence against women as a pivotal part of their mission.
The campaign was dedicated to raising awareness about the rape and murder of two lesbian women in a Johannesburg township and called for sexual orientation to be specifically recognised as grounds for protection by police and justice systems.
[11] Ndumie Funda, a South African Social Justice Activist, started her work to end corrective rape by launching a social campaign on Change.org in hopes to have the South African Government recognize hate crimes committed due to biases against sexual orientation and provide protection for victims.
This particular petition ended up gathering almost 200 thousand signatures from individuals making up over 175 countries, forcing the government to recognize this issue.
