Abstract: Submission #25

Abstract South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) populations continue to suffer extreme structural violence and systematic oppression. Colonialism and apartheid are arguably credited for instituting and maintaining a legacy of heteronormativity and patriarchy characterised by rigid gender norms together with violent forms of masculine expression. Other than being natural or immutable, typical norms regarding gender and sexuality are inextricably bound up with political, social, economic and cultural contexts. Despite having a progressive constitution that prohibits discrimination towards sexual and gender minorities, heteronormativity is institutionally and socially reinforced. Consequently, LGBTQIA+ populations regularly experience social stigma, discrimination, and extreme forms of violence, with oppressive experiences varying across class, ethnic, racial, and geographic lines. South African social work operates within this context, characterised by tensions between progressive pursuits of broadening and acknowledging varied lived experiences, and conservatism that foreground normativity and hegemonic expressions of powerful positionalities. At the risk of being remiss to its instrumentality in atrocities committed during Apartheid, current social work practices appear to maintain the status quo. Reports abound of gender and sexual minorities being pathologized by practitioners. Records of harmful research, divorced from the lived realities of respective populations have been often sited to deny them their constitutionally guaranteed human rights. Due to fear of controversy and conflict, educational institutions arguably make no attempt at critical conscientisation. Paradoxically, Freire identifies education as the central site for social transformation, wherein both the oppressor and the oppressed in societies need to embrace change. Thus, this presentation seeks to critically delineate gender and sexuality in a South African social work context. Ultimately, the authors argue for the application of anti-oppressive practice in social work as a critical framework to identify and challenge oppressive structures and systems that deny sexual and gender minorities social justice.