The annual Cape Town Pride event celebrated its 17th year, welcoming more than 2,000 people as they marched through the city centre demanding equal rights and inclusion for all LGBT people.
However, the night before the celebration of sexual and gender diversity, a lesbian woman was sexually assaulted.
Two teenage boys accused of her “corrective rape” now sit behind bars.
According to Daily Voice, a 25-year-old woman was walking to the local shop in the suburb of Lotus River on the Friday at around 10pm, when she was confronted by two teenage boys. The woman is said to have known one of the boys, and was lured to a house under the pretence that someone urgently
needed to speak to her.
Once they arrived at the house, described as a “hokkie” behind the main house, she was confronted by a third teen. She was thrown to the ground, her pants were removed and she was sodomised by the three men who eventually let her go. The traumatised woman ran home and her girlfriend called the police
the next day, and reported the attack.
Grassy Park station commander, Colonel Dawood Laing said “This is a horrific crime”. “We condemn all violence against women and children and this rape will not go unpunished as they specifically preyed on a lesbian woman,” he added.
“Even more shocking is that Capetonians recently celebrated the Cape Town Pride Festival”.
Two of the suspects, aged 14 and 17, have been arrested. While the third, known as “Boofie”, is still to be caught. It has also been said that the boys belong to a local gang.
Cape Town Pride and OUTReach Africa, the organisation behind Pride, released a statement saying they are “mortified at the assault and rape of one our sisters the day before Pride”.
They further urged the authorities “police and government to bring these misguided youth to justice” and for “the Education Department to actually start teaching the CSE (Comprehensive Sexuality Education) properly so that our youth are thoroughly informed”.
The CSE is a syllabus currently under fire from conservative, religious and traditional groups who believe the agenda of the proposed curriculum will sexualise children and expose them to inappropriate sexualities and behaviour.
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