South Africa: LGBT and the deaf challenges

As the nation celebrates the Human Rights Month, some organisations and individuals have little to celebrate as they believe that their rights are still suppressed and discriminated against by society. They allege that they feel marginalised by parts of society and accuse the government of failure to protect them.

The founder of Free Gender, Funeka Soldaat said they are losing hope in the country’s constitution. She holds that as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, they are not fully protected by government as their members become victims of various forms of discrimination.

“To the LGBT community, Human Rights is a pipe dream ... Too far to be realistic. As long our constitution is still homophobic and doesn’t protect us (LGBT) we have nothing to celebrate,” Soldaat alleged.

She criticized the courts for failing to protect them and allowing them to be the victims of society. “We have about five cases in front of court regarding the killing of our people in Lwandle and Khayelitsha.

Those cases have been dragging for years ... We used to protest in public, but have now decided to keep quiet and deal with our problem silently,” she said. Read more via News24