It’s been reported that a 24-year-old lesbian mom from Zimbabwe was brutally murdered in Gauteng.
In a statement, FEW (Forum for the Empowerment of Women) said it first heard of the news of Ruth “Nickki” Chigowe’s death on 27 May.
Her unidentified lifeless body was discovered “stoned to death” in Maphanga section, Katlehong, a large township southeast of Johannesburg. It was only on 31 May that the organisation was able to confirm Chigowe’s identity.
A murder case has been opened at the Katlehong North Police station. No arrests have yet been made.
Zaheeda Munyai from Access Chapter 2 told MambaOnline that Chigowe came to South Africa in 2019.
“According to the information I have found from community members, her parents disowned her due to her sexual orientation,” said Munyai. “She then found a job in a tuckshop and started to rent a room at Holomisa.”
Munyai revealed that it’s been claimed that two weeks before she was killed, Chigowe and her girlfriend “received homophobic threats from guys around the area wherein they uttered that they both deserve to be raped and killed.”
To add to the tragedy, Chigowe leaves behind a one-year-old daughter. “There is an urgent need for a massive intervention in Katlehong,” said an exasperated Munyai. “LGBTI people live in fear and they can’t even disclose their relationships in public.”
Lesbian Pinky Shongwe, 32, from Umlazi [South Africa] was stabbed to death by a man who was making romantic advances which she rejected.
Shongwe’s body was discovered this week.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nqobile Gwala said a case of murder was opened by Umlazi police for investigation after a 32-year-old female was allegedly stabbed. She said the victim left home to go to a local shop but was stabbed multiple times by an unknown suspect.
“She was found lying on the road and was taken to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on arrival. The motive of the killing is unknown and the matter is still under investigation,” said Gwala.
The victim’s sister Khethiwe Shongwe, said her sister had gone to a nearby shop when she was confronted by an unknown man who stopped and proposed love. She said she was home on the South Coast when she received a call that her sister had been stabbed, adding she was rushed to hospital but the family was told she had died on arrival.
Khethiwe said her sister had chosen to live her life openly as a lesbian, and her family and neighbours knew that she was lesbian. She said she did know whether the perpetrator was from the area, as no one had come forward with information about him.
Higui speaks after being acquitted of manslaughter, having defended herself during a brutal and traumatic attack and attempted corrective rape.
On October 16, 2016, Argentinian woman Eva Analía De Jesús, better known as Higui, was walking through the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista when a group of men attacked her because of her sexual orientation. Higui — who was given that nickname because she was a soccer player and had curls like the Colombian René Higuita — told the police and later the judges that her attackers beat her and tried to rape her. “I’m going to make you feel like a woman…a lesbian,” Cristian Rubén Espósito told her, according to his account. She took out a knife and plunged it into his chest. She fainted and when she regained consciousness she was arrested. Despite the fact that she reported an attempted corrective gang rape and that she was found unconscious by police officers, with torn clothing and numerous injuries from beating, her allegations were never investigated. She was charged with simple murder and spent almost eight months in jail. This Thursday she was aquitted. (Translated)
El 16 de octubre de 2016, la argentina Eva Analía De Jesús, más conocida como Higui, caminaba por la localidad bonaerense de Bella Vista cuando un grupo de hombres la atacó debido a su orientación sexual. Higui —a quien le pusieron ese apodo por ser futbolista y tener rulos como el colombiano René Higuita— contó ante la policía y después ante los jueces que sus agresores la golpearon e intentaron violarla. “Te voy a hacer sentir mujer, forra, lesbiana”, le dijo Cristian Rubén Espósito, según su relato. Ella sacó una navaja y se la clavó en el pecho. Se desvaneció y cuando recuperó la conciencia estaba detenida. A pesar de que ella denunció un intento de violación grupal correctiva y que fue encontrada inconsciente por los policías, con la ropa rota y numerosos golpes, sus acusaciones nunca se investigaron. Fue acusada de homicidio simple y pasó casi ocho meses encarcelada, pero este jueves un tribunal dictó su absolución. (Original)
A 20-year-old lesbian student was a victim of homophobia inside a nightclub in São Bernardo do Campo (SP) in the early hours of Sunday (30 January). First she was verbally abused and then she was the victim of physical violence. Gabriela Oliveira Guimarães was at the place called Blow Rudge accompanied by three cousins when she was verbally attacked by other regulars, who called her “dyke” and “Male Maria”. (Translated)
Uma estudante de 20 anos, lésbica, foi vítima de homofobia dentro de uma casa noturna em São Bernardo do Campo (SP) na madrugada de domingo (30). Primeiro, por meio de agressões verbais. Depois, foi vítima de violência física. Gabriela Oliveira Guimarães estava no local de nome Blow Rudge acompanhada por três primos quando foi ofendida por outros frequentadores, que a chamaram de “sapatão” e “maria macho”. (Original)
Nohemí Medina Martínez and Yulizsa Ramírez were found roughly 17 miles apart from each other on a stretch of Juárez-El Porvenir Road.
The women, who were both 28-years-old and of El Paso, Texas, were discovered on 16 January the day after seeing family whom they had travelled to visit in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, El Diario reported.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Chihuahua Committee for Sexual Diversity director Karen Arvizo confirmed that the pair were parents to three children and got married last year.
Arvizo also shared their fears that, like many other crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, the killings could go unsolved.
“The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing,” Arvizo further explained to the outlet. “We feel like we are treated like second-class citizens and that we really don’t matter.”
Martínez and Ramírez lived in Texas, but were both Mexican citizens.
They were discovered in two separate trash bags on the streets of the Mexican border town and had reportedly been tortured, shot dead and dismembered.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have arrested lesbian activist Sareh in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sareh, was detained for 21 days by the Iraqi Kurdistan police after her interview with BBC Persian about the situation of the LGBTQI community in Iraqi Kurdistan.
After release, she made an attempt to cross the Iranian border to seek asylum in Turkey. Sareh was arrested on October 27, 2021 while attempting to cross the borders to Turkey.
Tasnim News Agency, an agency affiliated with security forces, reported that IRGC had arrested individuals in West Azerbaijan on charges of “communicating with and supporting homosexual groups”.
IRGC is a branch of Iran’s armed forces that was set up after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country’s Islamic Republic political system, according to the report by BBC. Iran criminalises sex between men with the death penalty and sex between women with a hundred lashes.
Hours before leaving for Turkey, Sarah [sic] made three short videos and sent them to a trusted person. according to 6Rang. Sareh’s intention was to make her voice heard by the media and human rights organisations in case she got arrested.
“I arrived in Iran yesterday. They found out today that I am here,” she said in the video clip in Arabic. “I may be arrested any moment. They have all the information about me. They are after me. I have to get out immediately.”
“I reached the border somehow. I filmed the route,” she said in the same clip. “I wanted to send you this clip to make you understand how much we are suffering, as part of the LGBTQI community. We will resist till the end. We will remain true to ourselves. I hope a day comes when we can all live freely in our country,” she said.
“I was kept in solitary confinement because I am homosexual. I was electrocuted. Those 21 days felt like 21 years,” she said, about ways in which IRGC tormented her.
ROME, NOV 9 – A 20-year-old Tunisian-Italian woman was attacked by her father after telling her parents she was gay in the Marche seaside resort of Pesaro on Saturday, Il Resto del Carlino newspaper reported Tuesday.
The woman told her 53-year-old Tunsiain father and 58-year-old Italian mother she was a lesbian and was going out with a woman, the north-central Italian daily said.
When she was getting into her girlfriend’s car outside her workplace on Saturday afternoon, her father set on her, pulled her back by the hair and slapped her twice, the paper said, while her mother insulted her.
The woman was helped by a nearby hotel clerk who took her into the building and threatened to call the police if her parents tried to come after her.
Local police have opened a probe into mistreatment in the family. (ANSA).
The Young Terrace community in Norfolk, Virginia is in devastation after a mass shooting on November 3 left three women dead, two injured, and several children traumatized from witnessing the murders first-hand — some seeing their own mothers gunned down in broad daylight — right outside their home.
Police report that Detra R. “Dee” Brown, 42, and Nicole Lovewine, 45, who were partners, came home as Lovewine’s pregnant, 19 year-old daughter, got into an argument with her boyfriend. He pulled out a gun and shot her at approximately 6:00 pm. When Brown and Lovewine came out to help, the shooter turned the gun to them and reportedly fired at both “point-blank” in the head.
Another women who was outside with her three children, Sa’idah E. Costine, 44, then ran to try and help them. The assailant shot her as well, leaving her dead. Another women was shot and wounded before the rampage came to an end.
Police have arrested Ziontay Palmer, 19, and charged him with the entire shooting after apprehending him hours after. He was dating Lovewine’s daughter, who is five months pregnant, and authorities believe a domestic dispute set off the violence, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Palmer is facing three second-degree murder charges, two malicious wounding charges, and multiple firearm charges. He is being held in Norfolk General District Court without bond.
Lovewine’s sister, Tina McPherson, told the Virginian-Pilot, “That man… put a stain on this family that can never be washed — he hurt us to the core.”
A neighbor and witness told local reporter Andy Fox that there was “nothing they could do” for Brown and Lovewine. “They were shot execution-style. They had just come home from work,” the witness said.
A fifteen year old girl has been raped by two men as punishment for suspected lesbianism in the town of Yilo Krobo in Eastern Ghana.
It was reported on Africa Feeds, that the suspects, who shared housing with the victim and her friend, confronted the girls with an allegation of lesbianism and tried to offer them money for sex. When the girls refused, the men attempted to sexually assault them. One of the girls escaped, but the other was raped a number of times by the suspects.
The fifteen year old victim reported the attack to the police and one of the suspects has been taken into custody. The other suspect has yet to be apprehended.
Currently there are a number of legislators in the country trying to pass an anti-homosexual law that states anyone who engages in sexual acts with members of the same-sex will be “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
This bill, if passed, will apply to anyone who “holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.” It will also seek to punish people who promote and/or are allies to the LGBT+ community.
THE family of a lesbian woman who was shot and killed believe her death was mostly influenced by her sexuality. Limakatso Puling, 29, was shot and killed in Avoca Hills on Tuesday night.
It is alleged Puling and a friend were walking home when they were approached by armed men who demanded their cellphones. It is believed that Puling refused to hand over her cellphone leading to one of the men shooting her in the head.
Thembeka Ngcengula, Puling’s girlfriend, said it would take her a very long time to come to terms with her loss. Not only had she lost a partner but a parent to her disabled daughter, Olwethu, she said.
Lineo Puling, Limakatso’s aunt, said the family were heartbroken. They were expecting to see her in the December holidays. She said Puling had called home a weekend before her death and told them to make arrangements for a family get-together.
“I don’t even know where to begin explaining the hurt our family, especially her grandmother, is going through. We haven’t seen her since 2018. Receiving her phone calls telling us she was coming home brought so much joy. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.”
Lineo said they were saddened that their daughter was robbed of her chance at life because of her sexuality.
“We contacted her friend who she was with when they were attacked. She told us that when Limakatso refused (to give) her phone, those men kept calling her names regarding her sexuality. The killers must be gloating that they killed a lesbian. Was she not a human being? She was a lesbian woman and didn’t deserve to be killed. I hope justice will be served one day.”
Editor’s note: We have been following this story since it first appeared. For personal reasons we were unable to post it until now. Hence why we have included all three stories.
Man “pretending to be woman” on trial for raping lesbian
A 30-year-old man is on trial for rape after he allegedly lured a lesbian to have sex with him while pretending to be a woman.
Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, is on trial in High Court today (Mon) as he appeared in front of a jury of six men and a woman.
Prosecution said Tsang got to know the victim on lesbian dating platforms Butterfly and Her. He called himself “Jan” and said he was a tomboy.
Tsang knew the victim wanted to engage in sadomasochism, and arranged to meet her on February 27, 2020 to a Kwun Tong hotel.The Standard Channel
The victim found out Tsang is a man during sex and questioned him. She repeatedly pushed him away.
She also asked him: “I don’t understand. Why do you go after lesbians?” But Tsang did not answer.
Prosecution said Tsang should know the victim wanted to leave immediately, and that she only promised to have sex because she thought Tsang was a woman.
The victim called the police on the night of incident. Prosecution alleged that Tsang knew full well that she was a lesbian but hid his own sex.
Man on trial for raping lesbian said he did not respond in time to clarify his gender
A 30-year-old man on trial for raping a lesbian while “pretending to be a woman” said he was not aware the dating platform he used is for homosexual women only.
He said he did not clarify about his gender after the lesbian called him “sister”, because he could not respond in time.
Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, pleaded not guilty to raping a woman referred as X in court when they engaged in sadomasochism on February 27, 2020 at a Kwun Tong hotel.
He called himself “Jan” and chose to describe himself as a “tomboy” on lesbian platform Butterfly. X told the court earlier that she would not have agreed to the sex if she knew he was a man.
Testifying in self defense on Monday, Tsang said he did not know Butterfly is for lesbians only.
He said he used different dating apps including Tinder, Skout and HeyMandi from 2014, which do not restrict sexual orientation.
He got to know X on Butterfly in November 2019. He said he was aware that lesbians use the app, but did not think men were banned.
As for why he chose his sexual orientation as “tomboy”, Tsang said he could not log in if he did not choose one of the options. He knew tomboy means a boyish girl.
During conversations with X, the woman called him “elder sister” but he did not clarify. Tsang said he did not respond to the message in time.
X also said she wanted to find “a girl who cares for me”. Tsang replied “I can”, and told the court that he meant he can be a person who cares for her.
Tsang also told the jury that he did not put on any make up nor got into a dress in order to pretend to be woman.
He testifed that when they were in the act, he asked X if she felt comfortable, and she said yes. He thought the answer means she agreed to the sex.
But then X asked him what was inside her body, and he found the question strange.
“I was thinking what could it be? I stopped the action,” he said.
When X started pushing him away, he thought the woman was upset because he did not wear a condom. X then told him: “You are a man? And you did not wear condom.”
Hong Kong man accused of concealing his sex to rape woman cleared of all charges
An unemployed Hong Kong man accused of concealing his sex in order to rape a woman he met on a lesbian forum has been cleared of all charges.
A High Court jury on Friday acquitted Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, after four hours of closed-door deliberations in the midst of a typhoon, which ultimately led to the postponement of all other hearings.
Tsang was found not guilty of rape by a vote of five to two, and cleared of indecent assault by a unanimous vote from the jury of six men and one woman, concluding a 10-day trial before Mr Justice Joseph Yau Chi-lap.
The NYPD is asking for help in its search for the man who attacked a young woman in the East Village because she was holding hands with her girlfriend.
On September 15, the 21-year-old woman was walking with her girlfriend near the corner of East 14th St. and 3rd avenue when the suspect began yelling anti-gay slurs at them, amNY reported.
The couple continued walking, but the suspect did not relent. Continuing to spout slurs, he approached the victim and punched her in the face before fleeing the scene. The victim was not seriously injured.
Nearly a month later, the attacker has still not been found. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force continues to investigate the incident and on Sunday, released camera footage of the suspect walking down the street.
Former South Africa striker Portia Modise doesn’t care if the football community loves her. She doesn’t care if you like her outspoken manner, or the way she dresses, or that she loves women.
She’s the only African footballer to score 100 international goals, and represented her country for 15 years from the age of 16. But if you don’t want to give her respect for that, or her countless achievements on the field, she’s not too fussed about that either.
One of the first openly gay [sic] players in the global game, Modise says she only cares about furthering women’s football in South Africa, protecting female players from harassment, and being a voice for the LGBTQ+ community in her country.
Today, 21 years after her debut in 2000, the out footballers in Africa can be counted on one hand, but interestingly include her captaincy successor for Banyana Banyana, Janine van Wyk.
Despite hard-earned legal freedoms and constitutional rights won since apartheid [same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since 2006], much of the LGBTQ+ community in South Africa lives in perpetual fear of violence.
Murder and ‘corrective rape’, during which women are violated to ‘fix’ their queerness [sic], are still an epidemic for Black women in particular. There have been over 20 recorded LGBTQ+ hate crime murders locally since February 2021.
For Modise, the especially brutal rape and murder of national teammate and fellow activist Eudy Simelane in 2008, who was stabbed 25 times, further spurred her on in her fight for fair treatment, and was a factor in her exit from the team for four years.
A man in France is on trial for allegedly raping and torturing his lesbian sister and her girlfriends. Samy M reportedly lured his sister and her friends to the river Drôme, where he sexually abused and tortured the women. He is said to have used a razor to cut a ‘permanent smile’ on his sister’s girlfriend’s face. Her scars are still evident and will likely disfigure the victim for life.
Samy M has been on trial since Monday, September 27, at the Drôme Regional Court in Valence for the December 2018 crimes. As mentioned, he abducted and raped his then 24-year-old sister, who had left the family home in Bourg-de-Péage a month earlier, Les Observateurs reported. The man attacked his sibling after finding out she was having an intimate relationship with a woman, thereby going against the doctrine of Islam. Samy M was armed and hooded when he forced the victims to a deserted place, beat them, forced them to kneel down, and subsequently carved deep cuts on both cheeks of his sister’s girlfriend with a razor. “I will make you smile forever,” he allegedly told them, per the victims’ testimony in court.
Lesbian activist, Sisanda Gumede, 28 was the latest victim of homophobic murder in South Africa when she was stabbed at the weekend.
It is alleged that a 28-year-old lesbian activist, Sisanda Gumede, was stabbed on Sunday afternoon and was rushed to hospital bleeding profusely. She died en route to hospital.
“Although the information regarding the incident violently [sic] is still sketchy, it appears that the deceased and (the suspect) had an altercation while at home. Gumede’s murder is understood to be motivated by homophobia, as (the suspect) allegedly gloated after the incident that he had removed the curse from the family,” the Department of Social Development said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Two men have been arrested and charged in connection to the killing of out lesbian journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot to death while covering a riot in Northern Ireland two years ago.
“These arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra’s murder and the events which preceded it,” Police Service of Northern Ireland Detective Superintendant Jason Murphy said in a written statement. “The local community have supported the Police Service of Northern Ireland throughout the course of this protracted investigation, and I wish to thank them for their continued support.”
As reported by Il Mattino, during the night of 24-25 August, a 40-year-old man attacked and beat a lesbian couple, originally from Nocera Inferiore and living together in Castel San Giorgio. … The reason for the blind aggression? Pure and simple homophobia. The man brutally beat them solely because they are lesbians. The Nocera Inferiore Attourney and the deputy prosecutor Angelo Rubano are certain of this. The 40-year-old, already known to the police, went to the home of the two women, convinced them to go outside and attacked them, kicking and punching them.
(Translated)
Come riportato da Il Mattino, nella notte tra martedì e mercoledì un uomo di 40 anni ha aggredito e picchiato una coppia di donne, originarie di Nocera Inferiore e conviventi nel comune di Castel San Giorgio. … Il motivo della furia cieca? Pura e semplice omofobia. L’uomo le avrebbe brutalmente picchiate solo e soltanto perché lesbiche. Ne è certa la Procura di Nocera Inferiore, e il sostituto procuratore Angelo Rubano. Il 40enne, già noto alle forze dell’ordine, ha raggiunto l’abitazione delle due donne, le ha convinte ad uscire all’aperto e le ha aggredite, prendendole a calci e pugni.
Once again, lesbians at Kakuma camp in Kenya at Block 13, along with the other refugees, are in danger, as they have suffered a fourth arson attack this year.
On August 16, the block was awakened by what sounded like gunshots. When they arose, they were met with the smell of petrol fumes all over their compound and they noticed huge amounts of it all around the shelter where the children sleep.
Police were called. They refused to come out to investigate before daylight. Thankfully the children were moved.
The police told them to leave the petrol containers as they were evidence. It turns out the petrol wasn’t just around the children’s shelter.
An hour later, the entire block was alight. From the time this was all reported, it took two-and-a-half hours for the police to show up. The station is five minutes away.
Every single bit of shelter they had left there burned to the ground, as did everything inside them and near to them.
They, quite literally, have nothing left. Twenty-five children and their mothers are now without any shelter.
There is absolutely nothing to protect them from the burning African sun, or the torrential downpours when they come.
They have no food, clothing, shelter, toiletries, or any other essentials to survive even at night.
All of their documentation and IDs as well as any personal belongings are gone. They have been left with only the clothing on their backs.
The intent of these violent crimes is clearly to kill and injure the LGB&T community in Kakuma.
A new lesbophobic attack was recorded on August 24 in Castel San Giorgio, in the province of Salerno, where two 40 year old women in a relationship were kicked and punched by a contemporary already known to the police. He had gone to their home to punish them for their homosexual relationship.
During the struggle, one of the two women lost two teeth, while the other suffered bruises and abrasions. The violence continued even after the police arrived and found the two women on the ground bleeding….
(Translated)
Una nuova aggressione di matrice lesbofobica si è registrata lo scorso 24 agosto a Castel San Giorgio, in provincia di Salerno, dove una coppia di donne 40enni è stata vittima di calci e pugni da parte di un coetaneo già noto alle forze dell’ordine, che si è recato presso la loro abitazione proprio per punirle a causa della loro relazione omosessuale.
Durante la colluttazione, una delle due donne ha perso due denti, mentre l’altra ha riportato degli ematomi e delle escoriazioni. La violenza è andata avanti anche in seguito alle forze dell’ordine, che al loro arrivo hanno trovato le due donne a terra sanguinanti…
A young female gay [sic] couple was brutally attacked and beaten by two men in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, in the morning of 8 August.
The horrific attack took place in the borough of Mustamäe, at a food shack near the Szolnok bus stop.
According to Postimees, the women – 20 and 18 years old – had gone to buy French fries at the food shack in the morning of Sunday, 8 August, when they encountered three men, of whom one felt the necessity to call them “lesbians” and laughed at them.
One of the victims, whom Postimees calls Emma, but admits it’s not her real name, told the newspaper that she got angry at the men and told them to pipe down. According to the newspaper, one of the attackers started to strangle Emma after that.
“He held my neck firmly, my girlfriend tried to push the guy away. /…/ The men started to beat us with their hands and feet. Two of them were beating us and the third one was just looking,” Emma told Postimees. According to the victim, it later emerged that one of the men who attacked her had previously been involved in martial arts, and was over seven feet tall – “like a bear”.
Listening to Lesbians 