MEMBERS of the LGBTQIA+ community marched from Katlehong to Palm Ridge Magistrates Court in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday, 29 August.
Ekurhuleni LGBTQIA+ community spokeswoman, Ntsupe Mohapi said the community is discriminated against and are even disowned by their own families.
The members took to the streets and handed over a memorandum of grievances to court officials.
Part of their grievances in the memorandum is the demand that all the hate crime cases reported by the LGBTQIA+ community should be taken as a priority and investigated thoroughly.
They want the Department of Justice to look into secondary victimisation, which is often experienced by victims.
“We demand higher sentencing for perpetrators of hate crimes and hate speech. Setting a precedent that hate crimes are punishable and taken into consideration as crimes deserving of harsh sentencing will prevent more crimes of this nature from taking place repeatedly.
“All individuals found guilty of hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community should be given a harsh sentence without the possibility of parole,” said Mohapi.
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She said in schools last year they had about four suicide incidents among children of their community in Tsakane and KwaThema The children had written letters to their parents, complaining about bullying.
She said the discrimination has even escalated to the work environments and churches.
She said some people cannot attend church because whenever they step into churches the preaching changes and preachers discriminate against the LGBTQIA+ community.
"The pastors should know they are perpetuating violence against our members," said Mohapi.
Ekurhuleni Municipality Speaker Nthabiseng Tshivhenga and other councillors were among the people who joined the march.
“We are here in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community to speak about the cold cases of people that have allegedly been killed. We want the justice department to resolve these cases speedily,” said Tshivhenga.
Mmadichaba Malebye from the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court's justice department accepted the memorandum and said she would hand it over to their provincial officials, judges and magistrates.
