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Gays
Reap Rewards Slowly in Post-Apartheid South Africa (continued)
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Without her background in the ANC's youth league, said Funeka Soldaat, coming out as a Xhosa lesbian would have been extremely difficult. During Winnie Mandela's kidnapping and assault trial in 1991, the slogan “Homosex is Not in Black Culture” was internalized by many blacks who still believe that homosexuality is a white “disease.” Funeka suffered the additional stigma of being born a hermaphrodite. “I was not interested in boys and scared to go out,” said Funeka, who underwent an operation to make her a “full woman.” She used to fear for her safety when she left the house. The first digit of her ring finger is missing, because her family cut it off to protect her from evil. Funeka found her salvation in the ANC's youth league, where she was first able to test her political wings. “I tried to build that trust between members and myself,” she said. That trust later made it easier for her to come out to her activist friends. “At first there was shock but in the end there was absolute support,”she said. Both Funeka and Nokwanda believe that their community accepted their gay union so readily because they were known as activists first. “Gays and lesbians should be involved in general politics,” said Funeka. The Soldaats represent the blend of possibility, fear and courage that is the new South Africa. Until recently, the Xhosa and the colored woman headed a one-room household of 15 lesbians who had been kicked out of their homes for being gay. “Shame,” said Nokwanda Soldaat softly as she laughed at the thought of a visitor getting lost on the way to her home. The house she shares with Funeka lies in a labyrinth of similar tin-roofed houses that crisscross the landscape for as far as the eye can see. A lone Kelly green phone booth is shared by the entire community. Black power lines stretch overhead, bringing “borrowed” electricity to these houses from the other side of the main street. With a 6500-Rand (about $1080.00 US dollars) donation from a local gay and lesbian non-profit organization, the Soldaats built their current four-room house right next door to the old one. The brick-red concrete floor in the main room is cracked and pitted, the walls are made of thin wood panels and the smell of creosote permeates every nook and cranny, but this new place is home. Most of the lesbians who were living in the cramped house are gone now, having found work or permanent places to stay. Funeka works full time at the Triangle Project, which offers counseling and career services primarily to lesbians. Nokwanda is looking for work and planning her next wedding, the legal one. Next time, said Nokwanda, she will wear the traditional African dress of her country. “I want to show the black lesbians out there you can be gay and African,” she said. To see other stories by reporter Jessie Deeter go to http://www.useventhorse.com |
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