Sadly “corrective rape” is growing trend in South Africa in which lesbians ARE raped and beaten in an effort to “correct” their sexual orientation. The trend has grown since last April when a well-known South African athlete was brutally attacked for her sexual orientation.

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa’s acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs.As well as being one of South Africa’s best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigners and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.- Guardian UK

Authorities in South Africa are essentially ignoring the issue even though more than 30 murders of lesbian women have been reported in the last decade. A recent report by the international NGO ActionAid, backed by the South African Human Rights Commission calls for South Africa’s criminal justice system to recognise hate crimes, including corrective rape, as a separate crime category and condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes. For the full report and to takepart 7 visit the NGO ActionAid website. And check out this heartbreaking video featuring interviews with South African victims of ‘corrective rape”.