Perceptions of young people towards homosexual relationships in Alexandra

The study aimed at exploring perceptions of young people towards homosexual relationships in Alexandra by examining the social, religious, political, and cultural perceptions that young people hold towards homosexuals. It was an exploratory type of study and qualitative in nature. It was conducted in Alexandra which is a township located next to Sandton City in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Ten respondents were sampled through non-probability sampling procedure and purposive sampling method. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection. Van Manen’s thematic method of data analysis was used to analyse collected data. The study revealed that homosexuals are not well accepted in Alexandra community. The practice is mostly seen by the youth as undermining social norms and values. Most of the churches were not doing enough to educate people about homosexuality and most of the church-going youth did not approve of homosexuality and viewed it as ‘unholy’. The majority of the youth of Alexandra were aware of the Civil Union Act that legalizes same sex marriages though they did not support the legislation. Most of the youth thought that culture played an important role in the approval and disapproval of homosexuality. They thought that the fact that most cultures did not approve of homosexuality led to violence against homosexuals.

Publisher: University of Johannesburg
Year of Publication: 2011