Oh wow! Well I guess it had to happen sooner or later, and this is what happens when laws are passed and legislation changed without everyone sitting at the table and without thinking the whole thing through!
The problem I have here now, is that because the Police did not know what to do with him/her, the suspect - who at the end of the day is still a thief - was released. This is now setting a new precident! Why, well because anyone who now get's caught doing something that is illegal can demand to be put into the female cell (if they are male) and into a male cell (if they are female) because that is where they feel more 'comfortable'. Then after much ado, they will be released because the Police 'don't know what to do with them'.
This is not a good idea folks, and the problem needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency!
Gay prisoner dilemma sees shoplifter released
Boyd Webb
March 30 2007 at 11:35AM
South Africa's commitment to gay rights had placed some law enforcers in a quandary, especially when homosexual suspects demanded they be locked up with the gender they felt most comfortable with, MPs heard this week. Committee chairperson Maggie Sotyu said the recent implementation of the Civil Union Act, which makes same-sex marriages legal in South Africa, was causing a degree of consternation among police.
Sotyu said some gay male criminal suspects were demanding to be locked up with women, whom they claimed to have more of an affinity with. Police in the Free State were recently forced to release a shoplifting suspect after he refused to be locked up with other male prisoners, she told MPs.
He, or she, as he referred to him/herself, demanded to be detained with the female prisoners, claiming the men would rape him. However, the female detainees also refused to share a cell with him worrying that they may be raped by him." She said the suspect was eventually released because the police did not know what to do with him. The committee would have to seriously debate this problem.
ANC MP Benjamin Ntuli agreed, stating that legislators would have to address this issue with a degree of urgency before the government was inundated with law suits. Battling to make himself heard above the laughter, Ntuli said it was a serious matter that if not dealt with, could result in litigation. "The Civil Union Act is causing a dilemma.
Do we lock up suspects according to their gender and in so doing open ourselves up for law suits?" he asked. Sotyu said it was something that had to be dealt with before the 2010 Soccer World Cup. But Dawie Nel, director for the gay and lesbian advocacy group OUT, said he did not see the link between the Civil Union Act and the dilemma faced by the police as the legislation only regulated marriage between gay couples. "There is a difference between sexual orientation and gender identity and it does not necessarily follow that because you feel more effeminate that you are gay," he said.
However, he did say that effeminate men were far more likely to be raped in prison, a statement supported by the Jali Commission that investigated corruption and violence in prisons.
This article was originally published on page 6 of Daily News on March 30, 2007
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