The dialogue session was aimed at addressing issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the workplace and community.
This follows many complaints from members of the LGBTI community that they are unfairly treated in the workplace.
Founder of EPOC, Ntsupe Mohapi (43) highlighted that many gay and lesbian people still face prejudice in the workplace due to their sexuality, which has prevented them from flourishing in their careers.
“There is a lot of homophobia in the workplace and this has resulted in many gay and lesbian individuals not getting positions they deserve, which is a serious problem we are fighting,” says Mohapi.
During the session, individuals raised many concerns about hate crimes and said police were reluctant to follow up.
Fiky Mngoma (35) says in order for such issues to be addressed and really dealt with, the community needs to get involved and work cohesively with gays and lesbians to understand their sexuality.
“Homosexuality is not the issue, it is people who are homophobic who are posing problems for us,” says Mngoma.
ANC regional secretary Teliswa Mgweba says that such dialogues need to take place so members of the community can understand and know that it is wrong for people to be judged because of their sexuality.
“The time for us to turn a blind eye on such issues has gone, these are real people who are constantly being judged because of their sexuality and we, as leaders, need to come up with solutions to their problems,” says Mgweba.
