Kenworthy News Media, November 21, 2013
“When we are talking about gay issues in Swaziland, people are uneasy.
They know we are there but they deny it,” says Sibusiso Masango, Secretary
General of Swazi Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) organization,
House of Our Pride (HOOP). “There is discrimination and we struggle when for
instance applying for jobs,” writes Kenworthy
News Media.
“In Swaziland, LGBT acts are seen as ungodly, unacceptable, and illegal
and there are no laws against discrimination against LGBT,” a report published
earlier in the year by HOOP’s partner organization, SWAPOL, said.
Swaziland’s Prime Minister, Barnabas Dlamini, has called homosexuality
“an abnormality and a sickness,” and LGBT people “who are open about their
sexual orientation and relationships face censure and exclusion from the
chiefdom-based patronage system, which could result in eviction from one’s
home,” according to a 2012 report from the United States Department of State.
In fact, the Times of Swaziland
recently published a story of two young gay boys who were beaten
and evicted because they were gay.
According to the SWAPOL report, 40% of respondents to a survey claimed
that they felt like “outsiders where they live,” and less than 10% had
discussed their sexual preferences with anyone beyond their immediate family.
And the true numbers are probably even less encouraging as those who accepted
to take part in the survey were mainly people integrated within Swaziland’s
LGBT community.
But Sibusiso certainly doesn’t want to be seen as a victim. He wasn’t
really interested in talking about the discrimination of LGBT persons in
Swaziland when I interviewed him, as much as he wanted to speak about the role
and successes of HOOP in challenging and eradicating this discrimination.
“We see that there are some changes and we do push. We see ourselves as
a strong organization and we have tried to introduce the issue with the
Minister of Health”, he says. “The ministry appreciated this and we are working
together.”
HOOP was started in 2009 and has approximately 300 members. Amongst
other things they have trained peer educators who have campaigned on the rights
and provided support for LGBT people, started reporting on LGBT issues,
distributed condoms and lubricants, and improved the access of LGBT people to
health services.
But the clandestine nature of LGBT activities in Swaziland “may increase
risk taking,” as they “feel they have no recourse to bring incidents of abuse
to the authorities,” the SWAPOL report says whilst also pointing to the obvious
fact that this is an additional health risk in a country where over a quarter
of the population are HIV-positive.
This is why LGBT-organisations such as HOOP are so vital, both in
attempting to stop the spread of HIV, in ensuring equal rights for LGBT people
in undemocratic countries such as Swaziland, but also in ensuring day-to-day
care and survival, medical and otherwise, for LGBT people who in many cases are
discriminated against at by government-controlled institutions such as
Swaziland’s underfunded medical clinics.
But a general lack of support stifles the work of HOOP and other LGBT
organisations. Little support is given and almost no money is spent on
programmes for LGBT people by national governments, amongst other things
because there is a “lack of robust engagement by donors, implementers, and
governments,” according to a recent report by Aids-research organization,
amfAR.
So civil society needs to increasingly align itself with HOOP and
organisations like them to ensure that everyone in Swaziland and elsewhere are
allowed their own identity and to fall in love with whomever they choose
without being treated as outcasts.
Because intolerance in one area allows for intolerance to spread to
other areas, so when human rights organisations and civil society in both the
South and the North remain silent about human rights violations against LGBT
people, they are in effect undermining their own cause.
See also
COMMUNITY POLICE
BANISH GAY MEN
GAY
PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/gay-prejudice-rife-in-swaziland.html
NO RIGHTS FOR GAYS: JUSTICE MINISTER
NO RIGHTS FOR GAYS: JUSTICE MINISTER
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-rights-for-gays-justice-minister.html
SWAZI MINISTER LIES TO UN ON GAYS
SWAZI MINISTER LIES TO UN ON GAYS
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