Just when I was starting to get over the story about the lesbian woman who was taunted, gang-raped and left for dead several weeks ago in San Francisco, I read that the “corrective rape” of lesbians is all the rage among the men of South Africa.

The ferocity of the attack became clear in April last year when Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa’s national female football squad, became one of the victims. Miss Simelane, and equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian, was gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs.

Oh, and by the way, she died.  Not that the powers-that-be in South Africa give a rat’s ass about her or any of the many other women who are gang-raped every day.

A statement released by South Africa’s national prosecuting authority said: “While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project.”

Many years ago, a (male) friend of mine said, “Men are brave when people are looking. Women are brave every day.”

Truer words were never spoken.

[tags]rape, South Africa, gynophobia, sexual violence[/tags]