South Africa may be the only country in the world to have enshrined lesbian and gay equality in its Constitution, but a rash of brutal murders of lesbians last month has underscored how the country is undergoing an epidemic of hate crimes against LGBT people, triggering protests from Capetown to New York City - including from an openly gay South African Supreme Court of Appeal Justice. The lifeless bodies of a well-known Soweto lesbian and AIDS activist, Sizakele Sigasa, and of her friend Salome Masooa were found in a field in the Meadowlands area on July 8, and are believed to have been killed the previous day. Human Rights Watch, in a press release on August 9, denounced the \"climate of violent homophobia\" in which \"lesbians in South African townships are still targeted for rape and murder.\" The group \"urged the government to launch public education campaigns to eliminate homophobic prejudice in all walks of life.\" This petition has been created for women and men in the U.K. who feel that the South African government has to stamp out homophobia and institute a programme which will educate the South African police to be aware of these crimes and sensitive to the issue of lesbian rapes and killings in South Africa.

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