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NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2007
Queer Notes
by Elise
This year’s South Africa National Women’s Day celebrations were disturbed by the July murders of three lesbians. Sizakele Sigasa’s, Salome Masooa’s and Thokozane Qwabe’s murders exemplify the persecution GLBT people, especially lesbians--and, even more, Black and mixed-race lesbians--still face in South Africa, despite its constitution being the first in the world (1996) banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Police investigations into Sigasa’s and Masooa’s murders are underway while a suspect in Qwabe’s murder has been arrested and charged with her murder.
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Immigration Equality and Human Rights Watch are concerned that Victoria Arellano, a transgender woman, died, in July, because she was repeatedly denied medical care, including HIV medication. Ms. Arellano was in federal custody at a San Pedro detention center. In late August AIDS/HIV advocates, doctors and lawyers allege that south Florida jails delay, up to months, dispensing medication to a number of HIV positive inmates, 15 of whom have filed complaints. Dr. Ron Shansky, of the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare, emphasizes that HIV medication must be delivered in a timely fashion for the health of affected prisoners.
--From gaynewswatch and 365Gay
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