Johannesburg - Lesbians are at particular risk of anti-women violence, Judge Edwin Cameron said on Friday.
“Anti-lesbian violence is a specific form of anti-women violence because lesbians challenege men to rethink gender conceptions,” he told a discussion on sexual orientation at the University of Johannesburg.
“But all women, too many women in South Africa and too many children (are at risk) ... we have a long way to go.”
Cameron was responding to the murder of a 18-year-old girl who was raped and murdered earlier this month in Ventersdorp in the North West. It was reportedly believed to be “corrective rape” because the woman was a lesbian.
Cameron said more public spokespeople were needed on the protection of women and advocating against violence, but also advocating for same-sex orientation.
Cameron, a Constitutional Court judge, is an openly HIV positive, gay man.
Sapa