Funeka Soldaat is a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

community activist from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, who works with the Triangle Project and is a founder of

Khayelitsha Khayelitsha () is a township (South Africa), township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town, City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa language, Xhosa for ''New Home''. It is reputed to ...

-based lesbian advocacy group, Free Gender - both of which are non-profit, non-governmental organizations that benefit

LGBTI Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexua ...

individuals in South Africa. A survivor of

corrective rape Corrective rape, also called curative rape or homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which somebody is raped because of their perceived sexual orientation. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the ...

, she advocates against gender violence and homophobia in her country. Soldaat spoke to a Khayelitsha commission of inquiry in January 2014 about the 1995 rape. Free Gender calls out on homophobic and racist symptoms of society and called for a boycott of the 2014

Cape Town Pride Cape Town Pride is an annual gay pride event, featuring a collective of sub-events that includes the pride parade, Cape Town Pride Parade. It is held in Cape Town, South Africa, and serves as a major opportunity to bring the LGBTQIA+ communi ...

event, alleging racism, with Soldaat claiming that the event excludes women and nonwhites and instead targeting money strong white gay men. (Event director Matthew van As disputed her claim.) Soldaat has been the subject of two short films, ''Ndim, Ndim'' (It's Me, It's Me), directed by Martha Qumbe in 2005, and Episode 2 of the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

-commissioned series ''I Am Woman: Leap of Faith'' in 2013.

Life and activism

Soldaat was inspired to create Free Gender after her own rape, and the murder of nineteen-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana who was stoned and stabbed by a group of men in 2006. Soldaat's

occurred in 1995, not far from her home in

. When she went to the local police to seek aid and to report the crime, they were unhelpful. She said that "By the time it came for me to lay a complaint, a police officer looked at me from head to toe. He asked me what had happened. I told him I was raped. But what happened was he didn't take my statement and he went to talk to other police officers. They came and asked me what happened. It looked like they were considering my sexual orientation." She also experienced violence and abuse, later saying that “They he police officersthrew me so hard into the jail cell, that my feet were no longer touching the ground.” Soldaat's attackers were never found. As a result of this, she partnered with other women in her community to create Free Gender in 2008, to get justice for lesbians who have faced violence due to their gender and/or their sexuality. As a result, five years after the murder of Zoliswa Nkonyana, a verdict was reached and four men were sentenced to 18 years in prison. Funeka Soldaat is also an advocate for women's education, and believes that one of the best ways to fight injustice is to be educated. “The only way to survive is to go to school,” said Soldaat. In 2010 a member of Free Gender, Millicent Gaika was raped, beaten, and tortured for five hours by a neighbor who wanted to “cure” her of homosexuality, and in 2013, her attacker, Andile Ngocka was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment. "They know each other because Millicent grew up in front of that boy. And then we were so scared, because he can come back and finish up Millicent's life," said Funeka after the trial. The case seemed to give hope to other black lesbians living in townships, that other

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

s might rule in their favor. In 2014, Funeka Soldaat announced that Free Gender would be boycotting the

event because of its tendency to favor rich white men as opposed to reflecting the diverse community it represented, although Matthew Van As, the director of the event, disputed this claim. Many black lesbians, including Soldaat felt excluded by the

celebrations saying that, “When we attended or participated, it was through invitation by a few white gay men who are gatekeepers in Cape Town Pride,” she said of the event. The controversy over the lack of diversity in

Events and the white-male-centric running of the event is still an ongoing issue.

Free Gender

Since its founding by Soldaat in 2008, Free Gender has grown significantly. It is now a blog, a home for black

women, and has worked to raise awareness of LGBTI individuals. They now enjoy strong relations with the local police of

, making it easier for victims to report harassment, violence, and other crimes. Some churches have even reached out to Free Gender to talk about LGBTI issues. They still fight for the rights of black Lesbians and other black LGBTI individuals, and are dedicated to opposing forms of violence and hate directed at the LGBTI community. Free Gender also supports the families of

victims of violence. Their goal is to connect LGBTI individuals with their own community and to remove the stigma from

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

. "The organisation was established in Khayelitsha mainly because of the community's lack of understanding and its intolerance of LGBT lesbian,

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

people,” Soldaat later said of her organization's location. In 2016 they moved out of Soldaat's home and obtained an official office space located in Khayelitsha.

The Triangle Project

Funeka Soldaat is also associated with the Triangle Project. This nonprofit is based in

Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and offers resources and assistance to

people throughout the city. They offer three types of services; Health and Support, Community Engagement and Empowerment, and Research and advocacy. Health and Support Services offers aid towards the health, mental and physical, of

people. It offers counseling and a clinic in order to support its community. Community Engagement and Empowerment aims to strengthen the communities of

by creating and servicing safe spaces for

people. The

Research Advocacy and Policy Program Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to c ...

works to promote the rights of the community by transforming legislation and policy. The Triangle Project also works in tandem with the South African Department of Justice to fight for

legislation and protection in court cases and policies.

References

http://www.iol.co.za/news/the-voice-of-black-womens-sexuality-1991125 {{DEFAULTSORT:Soldaat, Funeka Anti-classism South African anti-racism activists Corrective rape Lesbian feminists South African lesbians South African LGBTQ rights activists Living people South African feminists Year of birth missing (living people) Lesbophobic violence Rape in South Africa Violence against women in South Africa