South Africa is the 1st Country to Officially Recognize a Gay Flag

South Africa is now the first country to recognize a gay flag as a National symbol.

LGBTQ Nation has the scoop:

The Department of Arts and Culture through the Bureau of Heraldry designs and registers heraldic representations such as flags and is guided by the Heraldry Act, which governs the use and protection of national symbols which is currently under the authority of the Minister of Arts & Culture.

“The Gay Flag of SA is now officially recognized and protected by the Department of Arts and Culture and the government of South Africa,” said Mava Mothiba from the department.

Eugene Brockman, the designer of the flag and co-founder with Henry Bantjes of the non-profit organization “Gay Flag of South Africa” that promotes the flag said, “The flag has become a symbol for both the celebration of queer South African identity as well as the a symbol against the obstacles facing LGBTI South Africans such as hate crimes. More than that the flag has become a watch dog, and its popularity resulted in the formation of an NPO advocacy group.”

This is so cool, y'all.

In South Africa: A Man was Beheaded because of his Sexuality

Sad and horrific news, y'all.

A young man named, Thapelo Makutle, was murdered over the weekend in the Northern Cape. His throat was slashed and then, he was beheaded all because of his sexuality.

Mambaonline.com has more to this story:

His two attackers are believed to have followed him to the room where he lived and on Saturday cut his throat, decapitating him. 

They left his body under a blanket as though he were sleeping.

Makutle, who identified as both gay and transgender, was a volunteer for Legbo Northern Cape. He recently participated in the Kimberley Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Festival, was known as a beauty queen named Queen Bling and was recently crowned Miss Gay Kuruman.

"It's so sad. I can't describe the pain that we are feeling right now," Shaine Griqua, director of Legbo Northern Cape, told Mambaonline. "We have lost a young, talented, gay man who was open about who he was. The last few days have been like a dark cloud."

He said that no arrests have yet been made in connection with the murder. He expressed his frustration with the lack of support for LGBT people in the Northern Cape and noted that hate crimes are on the rise in the province.

I wonder if the LGBT community is in fear of speaking out. This murder has to be investigated or more violence will continue. I hope the community find the strength to stand firm and demand justice for this horrific murder.

African Men sold as Sex Slaves

What is really going on in Africa?

African men have been sold as sex slaves to professional men in Scotland!

MEN have been trafficked into Scotland to be used as gay sex slaves.

In the first known cases of male sex trafficking to hit Scotland, two men were smuggled in from Africa and imprisoned in flats. The men were victims of separate incidents. One was forced to take part in pornography, while the other was sold for sex.

Experts fear that more victims could follow.

Julian Heng, who manages a support project for male prostitutes, said his organisation were called in to help the men. He said: "We have had a couple of requests for telephone support for professionals who were supporting two separate cases of men who had been trafficked into the country.

"They weren't asylum seekers or refugees, they had actually been trafficked into Scotland from Africa."

There are around 700 trafficked women in the UK but when men are trafficked here, it tends to be for manual labour - not sex.

In Scotland, there were about 400 male escort listings on the web in 2008 and half were in the Greater Glasgow area. There are around 100 men who work the streets. Some perform full sex for as little as £10.

This is too crazy!

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A Homophobic Mob desecrated a grave of Gay Man

This is truly horrifying! In Senegal, gay man's dead body is abuse and desecrated!

Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.

The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.

"I locked myself inside my room and didn't come out for days," says a 31-year-old gay friend of Diallo's who is ill with HIV. "I'm afraid of what will happen to me after I die. Will my parents be able to bury me?"

The sad thing is how this mess is growing in Africa. There has been more reports across the country and it seems to be getting worse.

And what gets me, is the fact these acts are probably reactions from the evangelicals telling them all that jazz about God and how we should burn in Hell. I can't help but to think they have a role in this.

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Interesting Quote: Desmond Tutu

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

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Nigerian Children are dying from False Claims of Witchcraft

This really gets me.

Evangelical Christianity in Nigeria is causing horrible abuse and wrongful deaths of children. Pastors are accusing children of witchcraft and putting them through "exorcisms" like pouring acid down their throats.

The worst part is the families allow this to happen. A growing number of children are dying like this.

Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files. Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises.

Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

"It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity," said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria. For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed.

Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund. "When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," he said. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

This is really hard to think about. These children need help and support. I am hoping these mission groups save these kids.

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Someone lay hands on South Africa

Eudy Simelane, was a star of Banyana Banyana, national female football squad from South Africa.

When she became a fierce equality rights leader and living as a out lesbian, was found in a creek in Kwa Thema, gang-raped, badly beaten and stabbed 25 times.

After that incident, a wave of violence against lesbians in South Africa grew. These violent acts are called "corrective rape" committed by men trying to "cure" lesbians of their sexual orientation.

A report by the international NGO ActionAid and the South African Human Rights Commission, found that the attacks are going unnoticed by the state and the legal system.

It's sad to think that these crimes are not being taken seriously.

The Guardian asks the community what's going on?

"Every day I am told that they are going to kill me, that they are going to rape me and after they rape me I'll become a girl," said Zakhe Sowello from Soweto, Johannesburg. "When you are raped you have a lot of evidence on your body. But when we try and report these crimes nothing happens, and then you see the boys who raped you walking free on the street."

"What we're seeing is a spike in the numbers of women coming to us having been raped and who have been told throughout the attack that being a lesbian was to blame for what was happening to them," said Vanessa Ludwig, the chief executive at Triangle.

"When asking why lesbian women are being targeted you have to look at why all women are being raped and murdered in such high numbers in South Africa," said Carrie Shelver, of women's rights group Powa, a South African NGO. "So you have to look at the increasingly macho culture, which seeks to oppress women and sees them as merely sexual beings. So when there is a lesbian woman she is an absolute affront to this kind of masculinity."

A statement released by South Africa's national prosecuting authority said: "While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project."

The failure of police to follow up eyewitness statements and continue their investigation into another brutal double rape and murder of lesbian couple Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Massooa in July 2007 has led to the formation of the 07-07-07 campaign, a coalition of human rights and equality groups calling for justice for women targeted in these attacks.

Sigasa and Massooa were tortured, gang raped and shot near their homes in Meadowland, Soweto in July 2007, shortly after being verbally abused outside a bar.

Human rights and equality campaigners are hoping that the public outrage and disgust at Simelane's death and the July trial of the three men accused of her rape and murder will help put an end to the spiralling violence increasingly faced by lesbian women across South Africa.

This isn't right and I can't believe it's getting this bad and going unnoticed