Leave No-one Behind

We often refer to our diverse community of sexual minorities as "GLBT", including main groupings such as Gay, Lesbian (also gay), Bisexual and Transgender. 

 

Sometimes, when we feel generous - or remember to, we add on the I for Intersex. Perhaps when we run into groups that confuse us, or defy classification into the other main groups, we quickly tack on the "Q" for Queer or Questioning - although I sometimes have to wonder who it is that is doing the actual questioning? Us? Or the folks on the outside of the community? 

 

But mostly, I often wonder why is it that we as a community seem to be struggling so much with framing and understanding (or even accepting) our own diverse identities?

Sorry, I'm Hatred-Intolerant

Why do some men feel that other men being gay is somehow an affront to their masculinity? 

 

What are they so afraid of?

Their own sexuality and of falling out of the closet? That, or are they afraid gay men have bigger dicks? I know some women who have bigger balls. Oh wait, I am one.

Let a girl just choose a girl over a man, and they feel they are "less of a man" for it and get all defensive, as if it has anything at all to do with them. That's right - they seem to think that a woman's taste in men (or women) actually affects them! Geez! Talk about insecurities, issues and mental problems! ... or is that ego? Nah, try arrogance.

Accepting Diversity

I find people amazing, fascinating. 

 

Don't you think it is incredible how there are so many of us, and yet each of us is still unique as an individual? Variety is the spice of life, or so the old saying goes. We are all basically the same biological organisms, but each of us is still different and unique enough to look distinctive, and have our own lifetime of experiences that make us into unique individuals, each with our own identities, thoughts, feelings, opinions and achievements.

It is this fact that makes Human society so wonderfully diverse. And yet sometimes we get tired of people who disagree with us, or with what we feel is the "right" or "only" way to do things, sometimes this diversity frustrates us. But place us in an environment where everybody looks, sounds and lives the same way - do we not soon find ourselves longing for a touch of individuality?

Puppet Electorate

Something is still really badly wrong with our democracy in South Africa. 

 

The poorest of the poor are still frequently being intimidated into voting for particular parties - being threatened with their homes being burned to the ground, or that they or their families will be killed if they do not vote for the ANC - little realizing or actually believing - that their ballots are secret.

 

Though there is probably no way of knowing if those issuing these low-key threats are in any way directly tied to the ANC itself, or whether this is just a form of terrifying peer-pressure from fanatical supporters, regardless, many ordinary South Africans capitulate to these threats - and this makes the outcome of recent general elections pretty much a foregone conclusion.

The Minister, The Barrister & The Thought Police

Recently the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Gigaba, announced his intention to push legislation for censorship of the internet and also the mobile phone network, supposedly to block people from accessing pornography. 

 

I believe that aside from just affecting negatively the civil freedoms instilled in the Bill of Rights for all South Africans, this will have dire consequences for freedom of expression, and the right to access information - and the potential threat that this legislation will be made to serve a religious fundamentalist portion of South African society that has long sought to police the morality of the rest of us.

Doublethink

I recently learned of the South African government’s pandering to religious fundamentalist groups, and began warning of this threat to civil rights and freedoms as protected by the Constitution. Just this week, I saw a news article announcing further confirmation of this collusion between the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in particular, and the religious right wing - in the form of the "Justice Alliance of South Africa" (JASA).

It reminds me of the old National-Party government and the Apartheid regime, for people to work to introduce censorship - particularly censorship based on the shaky ground of religious objection - into a modern constitutional secular democracy. In fact, to me it bears the same stink of the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany and the old Soviet Union - and in places like Zimbabwe, where it is illegal to even criticize the president.

The Justice Alliance of SA is a small fringe group of religious fundamentalists masquerading as a bona fide legal interest group - but with clear ulterior motives to further a conservative and theocratic agenda which will deprive the broader public of freedoms and liberties they now take for granted.

The Trouble With Censorship Is XX XXXX XXXXXXX

The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced plans to ban pornography on the internet. 

 

Also mentioned prominently in the article is their partner in this affair - a shadowy organization calling itself "The Justice Alliance of South Africa", which as it turns out, is a pitifully small right-wing Christian fundamentalist group which pretends to have the legal best interests of the South African public at heart, and which masquerades as a "friend to the court" whenever any legal issue related to matters of interest to the Christian hegemony appears before the bench.

This group has tried very hard to disguise the scent of Christian extremism emanating from within, with a thin veneer of legal respectability, and a spritz of eau de justice, but try as it might, the odors of religious extremism and conservative ulterior motives still linger.