Fijian uni gets GLBT group

Fijian uni gets GLBT group

Fiji’s largest university has a newly formed group for GLBT students just seven months after the country formally decriminalised homosexuality.

The Drodrolagi Movement support group, established at the University of the South Pacific’s Suva campus, aims to provide a safe environment and support structure for GLBT students while raising awareness of their issues in the wider student population.

The word ‘drodrolagi’ means ‘rainbow’ in the Fijian language.

The group held its first meeting on September 27, with the winner of the Miss Seniku gay beauty pageant, Rani Ravudi, giving some celebrity support.

“Safety is paramount for us,” Drodrolagi Movement coordinator Kris Prasad told The Fiji Times. “We want students to be comfortable in their own skin, and joining the movement is totally voluntary.”

From 1997 Fiji included protections for sexual minorities in its constitution, but retained laws against homosexuality in its Penal Code.

As a result, in 2005 an Australian man and his Fijian partner were sentenced to two years in prison for consensual same-sex activity, but were freed within months through a constitutional appeal.

The 1997 constitution was abolished by Fiji’s president Ratu Josefa Iloilo in 2009. Iloilo was subsequently forced to resign by the country’s military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Early this year, the Bainimarama Government repealed the country’s old Penal Code. Homosexuality has been legal since February 1.

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