Despite the Western Cape’s stance on supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, concerns have been raised over attacks on members who are being targeted through dating platforms.
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This comes after OUT LGBT-Wellbeing (OUT) said that the past few years have seen reports that numerous members of the LGBTQIA+ community, predominantly gay, bisexual and other queer men, have been entrapped by criminals through the use of platforms like Grindr, Tinder, Ads Africa and others.
According to OUT, once the victims arrive at the arranged date, they would be restrained, beaten, threatened and forced to empty their bank accounts by the assailants, who may also call on family members to pay ransom for their release.
OUT ran a social media campaign calling for more victims to come forward and report the incidents to the organisation and local authorities in order to raise awareness.
Since the launch of the campaign, OUT has received 18 reports detailing gruesome attacks.
Speaking to IOL, OUT strategic communications manager Luiz De Barro said that while the reports have all surfaced from areas mainly in Gauteng, such as Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, the organisation has learnt of incidents taking place in other parts of the country but has yet to receive any formal reports.
De Barros said there could be many reasons why LGBTQIA+ people living in other parts of the country were hesitant to come forward and report their experiences.
“Unfortunately it all stems down to fear,” he explained. “Being afraid of secondary victimization when reporting to the police, we know this still happens. Being identified and outed to the public when one isn’t ready.”
“The possibility that one might be humiliated, the shame of falling victim to false interest and being attacked on top of that, unfairly so.”
He added that while the organisation was still running its campaign, OUT still had to reach out to the social platforms that the alleged criminals were infiltrating.
“With regards to reaching out to the identified platforms we haven’t yet, and we wouldn’t know where to start.”
“However, that is something we will look into, as there needs to be some form of responsibility these sites take to ensure the safety of their users. I think at some point Grindr initiated a project where it flashed a prompt on its site.”
Meanwhile, OUT Human Rights Manager Lerato Phalakatshela urged members of the LGBTQIA+ community to be cautious when using dating sites.
“OUT is assisting the victims with legal advice, case monitoring and psychosocial support and referrals,” Phalatshela said.
“We are also working with CAP, a private security company that has been closely monitoring these incidents. CAP is using the information from reported cases to assist the police in identifying suspects,” Phalakatshela said.
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Picture: Grindr / Facebook