- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Lesbian soccer team fight for their rights
- Date: 16th May 2010
- Summary: SOWETO, JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT) (REUTERS) WIDE PAN VIEW OF SOWETO TOWNSHIP LERATO MARUMOLWA, CHOSEN FEW TEAM PLAYER WALKING DOWN THE STREET WITH HER FRIENDS SOCCER BOOTS GIRLS CHANGING THEIR CLOTHES MORE OF GIRLS CHANGING INTO TRAINING GEAR CLOSE UP OF A GIRL TYING UP SHOELACES GIRLS PLAYING WITH SOCCER BALLS JOURNALIST TALKING TO AN ACTIVIST BANNER SAYING: "DEFENDING WOMEN ADVANCING RIGHTS... FEW WORKS TO ADVANCE, PROMOTE AND DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF BLACK LESBIAN, BI-SEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERED WOMEN IN SOUTH AFRICA" (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHINDI MALAZA, FORUM FOR EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN (FEW), PROGRAMMES CO-ORDINATOR AND 'CHOSEN FEW' MANAGER SAYING: "The reason the FEW was started was to create space where lesbian women would be able to find space where they can be themselves and be attended to and be listened to without being judged, and because of the homophobia that a lot lesbians in townships were experiencing and having no one to talk to and having no organisations that are catering for that group, that's why FEW was started." CHOSEN FEW TEAM TRAINING MORE OF THE TEAM TRAINING AND EXERCISING (SOUNDBITE) (English) LERATO MARUMOLWA, CHOSEN FEW TEAM PLAYER SAYING: "We are people, I mean some people, treat us strangely, even our friends, when you touch them, they are being jumpy, and you are not even emotionally attached to that person. We are just being friends or something. You just need to teach them, you know what... we are lesbians, some of us have our own types, we just want to be loved and respected by the community, not to be discriminated against, that all that, what we would like in the township." MORE OF THE CHOSEN FEW TEAM PLAYING SOCCER (SOUNDBITE) (English) SETHEMANE "THE GENERAL" MAMABOLO, CHOSEN FEW TEAM PLAYER SAYING: "You know this team, it means a lot to me, because, we are like sisters, so we are like family, yeah when we are here, we fight for our rights and stuff, we are the voice of all the black lesbians out there." THE CHOSEN FEW GIRLS PRAYING THE CHOSEN FEW TEAM CHANTING
- Embargoed: 31st May 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Domestic Politics,Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA5FB4KF10HMSR1YX0L3TBXZRJA
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Down the road from a constitutional court that is charged with upholding gay rights, South Africa's only lesbian soccer team fight not just for the ball but to overturn prejudice and discrimination.
The "Chosen Few" play with skill and huge enthusiasm despite the scrappy dirt waste ground they use to train in central Johannesburg.
Such frustration is minor compared to the so-called "corrective" rape, murder, insults and beatings that South African lesbians have frequently suffered, despite the widely admired, post-apartheid constitution which was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
More than 30 lesbians are reported to have been murdered in the last decade, and the British NGO Action Aid said in a report last year that there was an increasing trend of homophobic attacks and murders by men who believed they would "cure" lesbian women.
The Chosen Few was launched in 2004 by the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) and the players say the team has become a refuge for them, in contrast to the danger and prejudice they suffer in their townships.
"The reason the FEW was started was to create space where lesbian women would be able to find space where they can be themselves and be attended to and be listened to without being judged, and because of the homophobia that a lot lesbians in townships were experiencing and having no one to talk to and having no organisations that are catering for that group, that's why FEW was started" said Phindi Malaza, the FEW programmes co-ordinator and manager of Chosen Few.
The team was recently part of a group that demonstrated outside the court where one of the murderers of former South African national women's soccer team player Eudy Simelane was tried and sentenced last year.
In a shocking crime that exposed the amount of hatred suffered by lesbians in the black community, Simelane was raped and stabbed 25 times in a township on the edge of Johannesburg.
Twenty one-year-old Lerato Marumolwa, a member of Chosen Few, said living openly as a lesbian means she has to live in constant fear.
"We are people, I mean some people, treat us strangely, even our friends, when you touch them, they are being jumpy, and you are not even emotionally attached to that person. We are just being friends or something. You just need to teach them, you know what... we are lesbians, some of us have our own types, we just want to be loved and respected by the community, not to be discriminated against, that all that we would like in the township" said Marumolwa.
The players, most of who began playing soccer in their childhood, train twice a week. The day starts in song as they change their clothes in the courtyard and then walk down the hill to the training ground next to a petrol station.
"You know this team, it means a lot to me, because, we are like sisters, so we are like family, when we are here, we fight for our rights and stuff, we are the voice of all the black lesbians out there," said Sethemane Mamabolo, also known by her team-mates as "the general", for her prowess on the field.
The team won bronze medals in the soccer competition at the Gay Games in Chicago in 2006 and at the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association Cup in London two years later.
This July and August, just after the World Cupin South Africa, they will compete again at the Gay Games in Germany.
Singing and dancing are an important part of building morale for Chosen Few. They dance down the pitch in formation before matches and end games with a huddle and the Lord's Prayer.
South Africa stands out in Africa for its legal protection of gay rights -- it was the continent's first country to legalise gay marriage. In many other African countries, homosexuality is illegal. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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