Bid to shift the ‘movable middle’

Citizen groups are working with schools to change harmful views of queer people

‘Iremember once, I was walking alone and a bunch of guys started whistling and calling me ‘baby’. When they saw I was ignoring them, they started going on about how the Bible condemns me and how they were going to rape me because that was what I really wanted.

“They called me terrible names like stjuzana, which basically means ‘sissy’, but in a really offensive way. I’ve had so many of those kinds of experiences.”

This years-long bullying was what led Njabulo Makhubo to attempt suicide: “All the bullying and homophobia just became, I don’t know, too much.”

His suicide bid shook his aunt, student activist Lindiwe Dhlamini. “For years, I’d been fighting for the rights of others but here was something so close to home. It hit me really, really hard,” she says.

Dhlamini decided to establish the Injabulo Project, a nonprofit organisation that aims to teach schoolchildren about the issues that face people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI), providing a safe platform for them to share their experiences.

The project takes its name from Makhubo, who, having survived his suicide attempt, is now a second-year psychology student at the University of Johannesburg.

Patrick Solomons, the director for children’s rights nongovernmental organisation Molo Songololo, says: “Despite constitutional guarantees not to be discriminated against, LGBTI youth experience severe pressure to conform and be ‘normal’, or heterosexual. Their peers often tease them, mock them, bully them, call them names, bribe them, beat them, sexually abuse and rape them.”

Progressive Prudes, a report produced by the Other Foundation and the Human Sciences Research Council, found that a significant percentage — 16.1% — of South Africans neither agreed nor disagreed that LGBTI people deserve the same human rights as all South Africans. Another 27.4% did not care whether or not the sexual orientation protection clause remained in the Constitution. Because of their

Photo: Daylin Paul Taunted: Njabulo Makhubo was bullied so much for being gay that he attempted suicide. It shattered his aunt, who then set up an organisation to counter homophobia.

Photo: Simphiwe Nkwali/Gallo/Sunday Times Fightback: Hundreds of people gather for Jo’burg Pride, the oldest queer event on the continent.

Graphic: JOHN McCANN Data source: THE OTHER FOUNDATION