She lay in the hospital bed, struggling to breathe. She couldn’t understand why she was shivering in the middle of a December summer. “My time has come,”she thought. “My story is ending here, another lesbian with a short life,” but instead, she left the hospital alive and HIV positive.
Lungile Cleo Dladla, 27 years old, from Daveyton, east of Johannesburg – like many other lesbians – never thought she was at risk of contracting HIV. She says she never thought her condition would be linked to her body being violated by a man who wanted to ‘teach her a lesson’.
Around 10% of women who have sex with women were found to be HIV-positive in four southern African countries. This is according to a new study led by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa and Columbia University. The study was conducted with over 500 lesbian women – mainly black South Africans.
One in Nine’s Campaign Coordinator, Carrie Shelver, says there are not many studies which have looked at gender based violence perpetrated against lesbian women. Shelver says from their interactions with various communities, they have seen a high level of infected women.
Investigator Dr Theodorus Sandfort of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University says that the findings suggest that the main source of infection among lesbians is likely rape or forced sex.
Dladla recalls the day her life changed. It was the month of love, February 2010 and they were in a field as the sun was setting. She had been walking home with her friend, Mathapelo, after a family funeral through a field they had gone through many times when they were accosted by a man in a hoodie with his face covered.
Lesbians are targeted with the belief that they can be ‘cured’ or ‘corrected’ of their same-sex attraction.
“He was walking in the opposite direction, but when we passed him, he turned towards us. He began following us and guided us to a secluded place. We followed him as he had a gun and we feared for our lives,” she says.
They lay there naked, two girls, bound by their hands and legs – the mosquitoes feeding on their skin in the dry heat. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a romantic date, but he was there – hoping to be the man to change their sexual preference.
The rape of lesbians – most cases being predominantly black – often happens under these circumstances. This has led to the coining of the term, ‘corrective rape’ or ‘curative rape’. Lesbians are targeted with the belief that they can be ‘cured’ or ‘corrected’ of their same-sex attraction.
Prof Vasu Reddy of the HSRC says: “The biggest problem identified was the issue of forced sex. The study revealed that over 31% of participants reported having being forced to indulge in sex by both men and women.”Dladla discovered she was HIV positive a year after the rape when she was hospitalised. She says when they reporting the rape that evening, the police refused to take her statement claiming she was a boy.
“The police asked ‘You were raped? How? That is impossible, you‘re a guy!’ I asked them how I could be male with breasts. If it was not for the girl I used to go to school with, those stupid people would have not taken my statement,” she says.
The risk of ‘corrective’ rape victims contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases is compounded by fear of stigmatisation.
Shelver says they are at an early stage of researching cases of lesbians who have been raped and exposed to the risk of contracting HIV but do not get the proper assistance, later testing positive.
In Dladla’s case, the police also did not have a crime kit available and asked the girls to return the next morning without bathing. “We returned the next day and they gave us some pills, but I do not know what it was for – they never told us.”
Dladla and Mathapelo were not examined despite there being a clinic close to the police station.
According to SAPS guideline on reporting a rape, “When you report, the police will take you to hospital where you will be given medication to prevent HIV/Aids.”
Rape Crisis explained that a rape victim is entitled to the Morning after Pill, HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment as well as antibiotics to prevent getting any sexually transmitted infections within 72 hours of being raped. This is procedure followed whether the victim wants to report the matter or not.
Dladla’s story is not unique but a reality that many black lesbians in South Africa endure. Dladla started speaking out after a friend’s partner in Soweto hanged herself in 2011 after she found out she was HIV positive. “I won’t keep quiet ’till I am in my grave”, she says.
Luleki Sizwe – an organisation that advocates against corrective rape in South Africa – was founded in memory of Luleka Makiwane and Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who both contracted HIV after being raped for their sexual orientation.
The group states: “The stories of Luleka and Nosizwe are not the only ones. There’s a general belief that lesbian women are a low risk group in terms of sexually transmitted diseases and especially HIV/AIDS. This opinion does however not take into consideration the high levels of rape, also called corrective rape, that particularly township-based lesbians are exposed to and which puts them at risk for STI’s and HIV/AIDS.”
Duduzile Zozo’s body was found on June 30 near the house where she lived with her mother in a township east of Johannesburg. She was allegedly beaten to death with a brick and left to die with a toilet brush inserted into her vagina.
A number of other lesbians have been killed in various ‘hate crime’ incidents in the country.
Dladla becomes somber as she remembers Patricia Mashigo who was found dead after apparently being stoned to death. Another activist she talks about is Noxolo Nogwaza who was raped and murdered with a piece of concrete paving in 2011.
Dladla says she is an open lesbian and is often confused for a male due to her appearance. She says she gets harassed more about her appearance than her sexuality.
In her community Dladla says she has received threats from men who threatened to ‘come finish her’. She says many men accuse the lesbian community of ‘stealing’ their women.
Dladla subsequently left the hospital two months later, after battling a lung infection and PCP Pneumonia. “I left the hospital with a CD4 count of one but now I’m healthy and alive.” she says.
Dladla says that she refuses to be a victim but is a victor.
Hasina Gori is an IWMF 2013 HIV/AIDS Reporting Fellow.
– By SABC: Hasina Gori
