Facilitator: Dr Ingrid Lynch
Human and Social Development (HSD), HSRC

Date: 29 November 2016  | Time:  12h30 – 14h00 | Venues: Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town 

“What fuels the targeted rape of lesbian and bisexual women?”
“How do we respond to sexual violence experienced by gay men?”
“Do lesbian women experience intimate partner violence in their relationships?”

We engage with these questions in a joint learning and discussion opportunity, hosted by the HSRC and Triangle Project – a human rights organisation concerned with the rights and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons.

LGBTI persons in South Africa live in a homophobic and patriarchal social order, where compulsory heterosexuality is often violently enforced. In this context, LGBTI hate crimes are fuelled by strong sanctions against transgression of prescribed gender roles and function to ‘discipline’ gender non-conformity. Further to this, LGBTI persons may also experience violence in their intimate partnerships – often at rates equal to that experienced between heterosexual partners. Widespread societal stigma and fear of secondary victimisation at the hands of health and justice officials, however, mean that these experiences of LGBTI persons largely remain silenced.

In this seminar we:

• Consider the personal impact of violence experienced by LGBTI persons, through a documentary produced by Triangle Project
• Present findings and related materials from a joint study about intimate partner violence in lesbian and bisexual women’s same-sex relationships, conducted by researchers from the Human and Social Development programme in the HSRC and Triangle Project
• Think through the implications of LGBTI-related violence for a broader research and advocacy agenda concerned with ending gender-based violence

For enquiries and to RSVP, please contact Dr Ingrid Lynch at ilynch@hsrc.ac.za

The HSRC seminar series is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The views and opinions expressed therein  as well as findings and statements of the seminar series do not necessarily represent the views of DST.

Cape Town : HSRC, 116-118 Merchant House, Buitengracht Street, Cape Town. Contact Carmen August ,Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299 or e-mail: caugust@hsrc.ac.za; 

Durban :  The Atrium, 5th Floor, 430 Peter Mokaba Ridge, Berea, 4001 , Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel (031) 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or email: RKhan@hsrc.ac.za , or Hlengiwe Zulu at e-mail HZulu@hsrc.ac.za

Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811 or e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za