Drag Queens and Sexuality in Lesotho

Yesterday I encountered a young male nurse here at the Maluti Adventist Hospital's Nursing school wearing a female nurse's uniform, a wig, heels, and copious amounts of makeup singing his little old heart out to a Celine Dion tune. This is the 2nd time I've seen him in the last three months pull off this gig (and he sure has the legs for the short skirt!). Hmmm.... after mentioning this guy to several of the male visiting docs they told me that they have worked with him before and that several times have found him checking them out. It made me wonder how many gay men and women live in Basotho, if they even identity as being gay, and how Basotho in general deal with sexual identity. Sexuality (sexual identity and sexual behavior being part and parcel of that big ol' package) is a topic that I've been thinking a great deal about as I talk to more young Basotho women and men in the communities that I'm working in.

Sexual identity and gender are MAJOR issues here in Lesotho and I believe are a huge part of what drives the HIV/AIDS epidemic. After being here for over 5 1/2 months I encounter on an almost daily basis, at a collective and individual level, a huge "Basotho masculinity crisis" which is connected to a whole spectrum of interrelated issues such as sexual behavior, violence against women, unemployment, property inheritance, and political power that provide fuel for the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is a very patriarchal society and traditional social norms dictate with few exceptions that men are heads of the household, chieftainships, and the Basotho nation at large. Women are legal minors and cannot inherit property or open a bank account without their husband or chief's approval. I would argue that over the last half century (the height of labor migration to the mines in South Africa) that these traditional social norms and how they shape masculine and feminine identities, roles, and behaviors have significantly changed and that this current generation of young Basotho men are struggling to deal with these changes that have intensified over the last decade due to high male unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and increasing social and educational opportunities for women.

Many Basotho men worked in the South African mines or other industries in South Africa up until about a decade ago. Men between the ages of 16 and 60 were largely absent from their homes and communities during the year except for short breaks and in their absence women became more independent and reliant on their own social networks, particularly their own families and less on their husband's family and men in general. Women took care of the home, worked the fields, raised and educated the children, and made many of the community decisions that once were the sole province of men. Cut to the mid-1990s when there was a massive retrenchment (i.e. folks were laid off) in the South African mines and the Basotho men came home to find that women on the homefront had changed even though men's cultural framework of what it meant to be a "true" Basotho man had not. Men were supposed to be the bread earners, handle all financial matters, and deal with all political issues. In reality all of these areas were challenged by the new social order which had evolved over the last few decades. The consequences of this social dissonance were harsh for men (and women): unemployment, depression, suicide, alcoholism, abuse of dagga (marijuana), rampant violence against women (e.g. " A man should beat his wife to show her he is a man."), and multiple risky sexual liaisons (a significant part of masculine identity here is tied to sexual experience and variety). All of this provided more fuel for the HIV/AIDS fire and led to the current "masculinity crisis" that I see evolving in this new generation of young Basotho men.