Quarter of EC LGBTI community HIV positive

AT LEAST one in every six people in the Eastern Cape is gay, figures released by the Eastern Cape Aids Council yesterday revealed.

Census 2011, the latest figures, showed there were 6.5 million people in the province, and the council’s Zeodor Arends said 1.2 million were members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) community.

“Out of the 1.2 million members that are known to be members of the LGBTI communities, over 300 000 in that number is HIV-positive.”

The council tabled these statistics at a government engagement session at the Bhisho Youth Centre yesterday, where social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi hoped to get official figures on challenges facing the LGBTI community in preparation for her policy speech.

The council’s figures revealed 70% of new HIV infections came from LGBTI communities and from sex workers.

In the Eastern Cape, there are more than 11 000 known sex workers, according to the council.

Arends said understanding the sector was crucial to reduce new HIV infections and violence targeting the groups.

Sihlwayi said her department decided to hold yesterday’s session before she presented her policy speech “so that we can have an idea of how much we need to budget for to prevent violence against these vulnerable groups”.

Among the dignitaries in attendance yesterday was Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s personal assistant Dimakatso Sebidi, who was born transgender.

Sebidi shared her experience with hate against the LGBTI community.

“The journey to understanding myself and the self-denial that I went through could have discouraged me from studying, pursuing a career.

“But because of the support that I received from my father specifically, it did not,” said Sebidi.

Leigh Ann van der Merwe from Social Health Empowerment, an organisation that deals with LGBTI in the Amathole region, said the session with the MEC was long overdue.

Van der Merwe said crimes against LGBTI communities were rarely recorded and that made it difficult for them as non-government organisations to design specific strategies to address these criminal elements.

Sihlwayi invited members of the LGBTI communities and sex workers organisations to come on board and help the state make informed decisions in order to be able to protect everyone. —