"In townships we get raped, we get beaten" - A lesbian footballer has found sanctuary from violent discrimination.
The article is about Lerato Marumolwa, a squad member of South Africa's only out lesbian football team. The team are named 'The Chosen Few' as they were founded in 2004 by the Forum for the Empowerment of Women.
Lerato is 21, and says that there is only one place in her neighborhood where they are allowed to train, because everywhere else has "people who beat, rape or swear at us". It's a shocking fact that could be underdramatised by readers until a team mate of Lerato's, named Tumi Mkhuma, confesses that she was kidnapped by a man who was "offended" by her sexuality. He beat her unconcious, and she only found out that she'd been raped by him because she fell pregnant. It's a scary thought that the man who did that to her still has not been caught.
It's not just the individuals that are brave enough to express their sexuality who are discriminated against in South Africa; The Chosen Few as a team find it hard to be accepted, an example of this is having to wait three months for US authorities to allow the group of 'unmarried and largely unemployed women' to fly to Chicago for the Gay Games, where they had enourmous success: winning bronze.
Lerato and her Few team mates are an inspiration. The bravery and courage these women must have to be openly gay in such a horrific environment speaks volumes about them as individuals and makes us think twice about our own situations. Obviously coming out is a big deal to anyone, and anyone who has been through it knows this, but coming out to a nation who don't accept it, rather than just family members and friends, where you're likely to be beaten and raped for being honest about who you are, it begs the question if any of us would be brave enough to come out in that situation.
The Guardian article then goes on to report that over 30 lesbians have been murdered in South Africa during the past decade, one of whom was an international footballer called Eudy Simelane who was raped and killed in 2008. This is just yet more incentive to hide your sexuality you'd have thought, yet I admire that these 25 women are willing to take the disgusting abuse to be happy with who they are, and to show the world that they are not ashamed.
Lerato continues by saying that the Chosen Few have been banned from formal competition for being open about their sexuality. She says she knows "there are other teams where there are lesbians but the coaches don't allow them to be who they want to be" and adds, "They know who they are and who they want to be, and we are free."
This leads me to wonder about more famous footballing nations, such as England, Brazil and the States, and various other European countries like Italy, France and Germany. For the majority, homosexuality is much more widely accepted and recognised, so why aren't there any out players? Speaking from experience as a footballer, the lower leagues of English womens football are over run with out lesbians, so why, on the worlds stage, are there none in the international teams? I would bet all my belongings that there are lesbians in the national womens squads, but they are all safely wrapped up in Narnia.
If it's a question of role models, and worry that if the lesbians make themselves known then young girls wont want to get into football, then I can only stress that I doubt it would make much difference. From younger and younger ages, girls in football are becoming aware of sexuality and it's bothering fewer and fewer of them. For those few girls in young teams who begin to question their sexuality, don't you think it would be good for them to have a role model that was gay too, instead of the squeaky clean heterosexual squad of 25 where not a single one is gay? Obviously there are alot of straight women who play football but to be honest, it would be refreshing and warming to see a woman who is recognised as one of the best footballers in England to come out and say "Some people are gay. Get over it."
For the full article on Lerato go to www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/20/world-cup-south-africa-lesbian
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