FORWARD
By Sir Elton John and David Furnish
Elton John AIDS Foundation

In the South African city of Port Elizabeth, there was, not long ago, a twelve year old girl called Pearl Mali with a big smile and gentle, sparkling eyes. If you had seen her playing, it would have been obvious that she was a type you can spot in any children’s playground anywhere in the world – a tomboy. Pearl would look at girls and feel a strange stirring, and she would ask herself: “What is this feeling?”

One day, Pearl’s mother came to her and laid out two cups. “This cup is a boy,” she said, “and this cup is a girl. How do you feel about these cups?” Pearl said she hated boys, they were ugly. But with girls, she said, looking at the other cup, she felt excited.

Like Pearl, we realized we were gay in our early teens. Slowly, over time, we were able to explore those feelings, and develop loving relationships. Pearl’s mother believed that she had to prevent that happening any way she could, so she decided to follow a simple process that is widely supported in the South African townships. She decided to get a man to rape her daughter until she became straight.

There was a much older man at her church, and he was glad to accept the invitation. He came home one day, pinned the girl down, and forcibly penetrated her. Pearl’s mother sat in the next room listening, and only interrupted to order her daughter not to scream.

This process is known as “corrective rape.” It is based on the belief – promoted by many priests, and widely believed across Africa – that if you rape a lesbian, you will “remind” her of the proper role of a woman, and she will become heterosexual.

But the day after her rape, Pearl woke up, and she was still a lesbian. Her mother decided she had clearly not been raped enough. She invited the rapist to come and live with them, and to rape the girl every day. He stayed for four years.

Pearl went to the police. They laughed at her. “I needed help,” Pearl says, “but they kept laughing.”

When Pearl found out at the age of sixteen that she was pregnant with her rapist’s child, she decided she had to run away. As soon as the child was born, Pearl’s mother came and snatched the baby away. “You’ll make the baby gay if it stays with you,” she said. “You will never be able to hold this baby or touch it or kiss it until you decide to be heterosexual.” She took her mother to court to get custody of her child, and at the first hearing, the rapist turned up. The judge ordered them all to return the following day, but only Pearl came back. Without all the people involved, there could be no ruling in the case. Pearl has not seen her baby since. She thinks of him every day.

Amazingly, Pearl has managed – as you will see in the remarkable photographs of her in this book – to rebuild her life. She now has a girlfriend, and is working for the NGO Free Gender, a heroic group of women from the townships. They help women who have been attacked in this way to find the courage to speak out, and they pressure the police to take the crimes seriously.

Sir Elton John - Founder
& David Furnish - Chairman
Elton John AIDS Foundation

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