RESEARCH PUTS RURAL GAYS UNDER SPOTLIGHT

By Lesego Tlhwale (BTM Intern)

SOUTH AFRICA – 24 June 2009: The University of South Africa (UNISA) together with Gay Umbrella, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisation in the North West Province, have joined forces in a two year systematic research project that will provide important insights into the rural perspective of gays and lesbians.

The project is set to focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in rural areas of the North West Province with a view to get a closer look at their lives and the challenges they face on a daily basis in terms of empowerment.

Three similar studies have already been done in other provinces, where the focus has been on the urban experience.

However, according to Gay Umbrella, the current research project is unique in that it will focus mainly on marginalised rural gay people.

The Gay Umbrella committee members, under the chairmanship of Mildred Maropefela, “felt there was a need to do extensive research into the LGBTI community to ascertain their needs, which would inform future programs and projects of the Gay Umbrella.

OUT LGBTI Well-being has also been involved in this project by introducing Gay UNISA’s Centre for Applied Psychology (UCAP).

UCAP was about to embark on an extensive research project to measure the level of empowerment among members of the LGBTI community, and Gay Umbrella became the local partner, helping to focus the research on the North West Province as a case study.

The project is funded by the South African Netherlands Research Programme on Alternative Developments (SANPAD), a unique collaborative research programme financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project started taking form in the first week of February 2009.  “The week-long start up workshop was the first step in bringing together the four research partners, as well as LGBTI people and provincial and national organisations interested in the field”, Gay Umbrella said in a statement.

Other organizations in the province that took part were the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), Department of Health, South African Police Service (SAPS), Youth Commission, Provincial Council on Aids etc.

The workshop took the form of various focus groups and field visits. This type of sessions showed a lot of support and understanding from the community at large with important people and organisations pledging their help on issues affecting the LGBTI community.

“We were happily surprised to see openness about LGBTI issues in the North West Province and willingness to better understand what it means to be gay”, Professor Sandfort from Columbia University in Amsterdam University said.
  
The next phase will start at the beginning of July 2009 and will focus on collecting necessary data from LGBTI individuals where they will be asked to fill in an extensive questionnaire.

The data collection will be done by senior and postgraduate students in the Human and Social Science from the University of the North West, who were trained as field workers during the month of April 2009.

The project is set to be completed in 2010 whereby researchers will be report on their findings.

However the merger won’t stop there as Gay Umbrella management team will be assisted in designing and implementing programmes and projects based on the needs that are identified and financial support will be provided for their effort.

“All of this will in the end be of benefit to LGBTI individuals and hopefully, will lead to a more active cohesive gay community”, Gay Umbrella said.