Thishiwe Ziqubu opens up after she was beaten up and set on fire for sleeping with women

“It’s not okay that my being female-assigned-at-birth dating women and identifying as non-binary self needs to fight some guys every time I take a girl out on a date.”

As pride month continues, actor Thishiwe Ziqubu has in a lengthy Twitter thread opened up about some of the fears members of the LGBTQI+ community live with daily due to homophobia and the violence people direct at them.

Thishiwe detailed instances where some members of the LGBTQI+ community immediately resorted to fighting because experience had taught them to live life assuming that they would be attacked for living their lives authentically.

The Emoyeni star took to their TL to express the heaviness at the news of an alleged murder of a member of the rainbow community. It was then that Thishiwe also showed the world her wounds.

“Holding all queer people in my heart tonight, every night. Does the world even know what living always anticipating being killed for being who you are is like?”

Thishiwe, who identifies as non-binary, continued to share some scary experiences.

“My first girlfriend at age 18, a man burnt me. Yes, set me alight because he saw me kissing a girl. I was helped immediately and I’m grateful.”

Thishiwe added, “Got beat up by a Rasta 1 year later who misunderstood my connection with Rastafari for some alliance with his mindset, so after we vibed about Selassie and I left with a woman after, he beat me up, but it was like a proper fight. I was fine thanks to chance, my Gods and boxing training … but he could have killed me. Any of the men cheering him on as he beat me could have killed me.”

Thishiwe explained that as a result of living in constant fear, they stopped going out to public places two years ago.

Thishiwe explained that in retrospect, they realised that they never stopped getting involved in fist fights due to dating women and the reactions men had about that.

The Emoyeni star then explained what the constant fighting started to do to their mental space and how an unhealthy obsession grew out of it.

“And I got into this very unhealthy space where I started feeling super macho about my ‘conquests’ like yeah, my lip busted, but you should see the other guy – like gaining ego points from beating up homophobes like it was dope & I totally forgot that the whole scenario is not okay.”

They went on to lambaste homophobes.

“It’s not okay that my being female-assigned-at-birth dating women and identifying as non-binary self needs to fight some guys every time I take a girl out on a date. Or every time I walk out the f*ckn door and you get angry because you believed I was a man and when you decide I’m not you wanted me dead,” Thishiwe shared.

– Timeslive