It seems that advocacy groups always leave somebody out somewhere.
All these groups names just say "gay" and "lesbian" but few seem to include "intersex", "bisexual" or "transgender" in the name. I know the GLBTIQ etc. acronym is an ever-changing and expanding, evolving and growing royal pain in the butt, and even that omits several other emerging groups such as asexuals. We need a global name to describe the community as a whole. And we need to make sure no group gets left out - or feels left out.
For some time I have been using the term "the Pink Community" to describe us - because to me, that is all-inclusive, no matter what sub-part you belong to, if you are not strictly heterosexual or are in any way gender-variant, you can be sure that you are included in there, somewhere.
The thing that bothers me is how divided the pink community is. Gay males and gay females prefer to have separate social events - and why not? After all, the reason they don't like to mingle socially while trying to find a date is because their focus is on their own, like-minded kind and not the opposite sex. Similarly, there is a tendency for both groups to view the transgender portion of the community with suspicion and distrust, and I've often felt that this is perhaps because they feel transgender men or women represent some sort of "competition" in their own efforts to find (or keep) a partner.
I for one, have often been made to feel unwelcome in several of these groups, some of whom informed me that I "don't fit in" with them.
While this may or may not hold any truth is beside the point I'm raising here - which is that all this distance tends to leave the ground between these ostensibly separate groups littered with the dirty mess left by in-fighting over differences in musical taste, dress-sense, jealousy over partners, and other nitty-gritty nonsense.
The UK gay activist group called Stonewall is a prime example of this, in terms of going about things the wrong way.
Why do I say this? Well, because they only concern themselves with the gay aspect of our conglomerate of alternative identities - screw the trans and intersex, they can just get their own groups and fight their own battles for their rights, right?
Never mind the probability that many trans people live as gay people in terms of their actual relationships, dating people of their own gender.
Never mind the detail that most outsiders - and the bigots and ignorant public view us ALL as "gay" anyway, because they don't know any better. Never mind the fact that many trans and intersex rights overlap with gay rights.
Never mind the fact that increased numbers mean a louder voice in the battle for equality and this divisiveness just serves to turn down the global volume of our voice of protest in the face of increasing hate and persecution.
It is a simple fact that if we stop socializing together, we soon stop co-operating and standing together as well. Pretty soon we stop thinking of ourselves as being part of the same community - and not long after that, we start acting like competitors - or worse yet, rivals.
Here in South Africa, we are EVEN FURTHER divided, along color lines. You know how hard it is to get white and black lesbians to even sit and chat to each other around the same table? To socialize? Believe me, I can tell you from experience - it's really hard - and that we've managed to get it to happen once or twice is equal to an achievement like putting a satellite in orbit!
To make things more interesting, how many people know what it means to be transgender or transsexual - or intersex? It took the Caster Semenya saga for people to take any kind of interest in finding out what intersex is - and even then, they mostly got it wrong, with pointed references to "hermaphrodites". And to bolster my point, how many of our OWN community knows what transgender really is? How many, if asked, will tell you that sexual orientation and gender identity are separate concepts and issues? How many know that while sexual orientation is included in most legalese these days, gender identity is quite clearly omitted. That's right - while gay people have many legal protections here in South Africa, we trans people very often have to take shelter under various clauses and paragraphs which do not specifically pertain to us.
I am a transsexual woman and I am involved with two primarily gay-focused groups - even leading the one - but as things stand right now, I am technically neither gay, nor lesbian. I am quite often amused by transgender people complaining about how they are being left out and trans issues being ignored by "mainstream" gay rights groups. I think given that, it is quite something - both that gay people would trust me to that degree, and that I could make it that far. Of course, I am greatly honored by this trust, but this article is certainly not intended for me to sit here polish my laurel wreath.
The apathy out there is the worst thing. Sometimes I think all our people want is to party, party, party. Sometimes I think I should just leave it all until they change the Constitution and only then sit up and take notice, and I can say "I told you so".
Why don't we have straight supporters involved in our advocacy groups and leadership structures? Don't we trust them? Or do we subconsciously view all straight people as a threat to our rights, as we do the bigots, usurpers and pretenders? Why don't we accept offers of help and support from religious figures and groups that genuinely want to stand with us in our fight for acceptance, recognition and equality? I would think that a community as beleaguered as ours, would take help where we can get it. But no, affirming and welcoming churches remain empty, their offers unanswered even by the religious among us.
I think the fear is that the community wants to be represented by itself, and I suppose they don't trust their fate being left in the hands of people who aren't GLBTI themselves. I have faced the same thing from them too. I've been told that since I've had my surgery, I pass as a woman now, so why don't I just STFU and go back into my closet and keep quiet? Even my own mother has suggested this, though not in the same hostile tone. I suppose I could do it, but my conscience would never let me rest.
Some advocacy groups around the world (such as Stonewall again) don't want trans people involved. Some again, don't even want any straight people involved. Others will allow them to attend events and join as members - but they don't want them in any leadership positions. No, it is a gay-only affair - and "FI or FO" applies. Sometimes it seems our groups can be just as prejudiced and biased as the prejudices and hatreds that we're fighting against. And yet it seems to me that the truth is slowly dawning that we need each other, our straight allies and us - we need their voices and their numbers to speak out with us in our defence. Without them, we simply do not have enough volume to be heard alone.
I'll make it real simple for you. You see, it's a numbers game - and there are a lot more of them than there are of us. In order for us to not just succeed - but to survive - we need cis-het allies. We cannot stand alone, not for long - or it will be a last stand.
I've noticed that the fight for human rights for the Pink Community in South Africa is increasingly being made to resemble the battleground in the USA. In my view, this is due to the increasing involvement of foreign groups in local issues and in supporting local homophobic groups – which are leading the fight against our legal protections in the SA Constitution.
This is exemplified by the same sort of religious-right policy-influencing groups as we see in the USA, often ones that are directly connected to, or even sponsored by those same groups, and pushing exactly the same religious-extremist arguments and pseudo-scientific propaganda into public mainstream consumption through their own agitation.
Examples of such groups are the Family Policy Institute, Christian Action Network, and the Rhema cult (and its NILC group being assisted by the SA government), which are all using exactly the same strategies as right wing bigot groups in the USA – and which in most cases, are receiving DIRECT support from these groups.
Frankly, I am 200% certain that if it were not for the protections in our South African Constitution and the Equality Act, the landscape in South Africa would look very much different right now, and we'd probably be facing the same sort of incoming genocidal Christ-fascist laws as that emerging right now in Uganda. The Ugandan "Kill the Gays Bill" incidentally, was introduced by the same sort of people who received the same sort of support from very much similar if not the same organizations based in the USA (and even in South Africa).
So WHO is attacking our human rights in South Africa?
Advocates for patriarchal traditions (anti-feminists, misogynists), religious extremists (whether Christian, Muslim or other) and conservatives (non-religious, but usually religious). To keep it simple, let’s just call them BIGOTS - a turd by any other name would smell just as rancid, wouldn't it? Below is a list of some of the major personalities at work in that field today:
Peter Hammond – Christian Action Network (CAN). At last count this umbrella group boasted of 128 member groups and affiliate organizations in SA and the Netherlands, including Africa Christian Action (ACA), Frontline Fellowship (FF), Doctors For Life, Nurses For Life, Gospel Defence League (GDL), Christians For Truth (CFT) - HAHAHAHAHAHA - sorry, Homosexuality.co.za, Kwasazibantu Mission, Christian Liberty Books, Reformation SA.org (the Reformation Society), In Touch Mission International, Today Magazine, Restoring Wholeness Ministries (Ex-Gay), Life Matters (Ex-Gay), Christian Vision Network, Defend Marriage, Family Alliance International, Justice Alliance of SA (JASA) which is currently involved in reintroducing censorship laws in SA, JOY! Magazine, Gun Owners of South Africa (GOSA).
Peter Hammond is a self-proclaimed pastor and former mercenary, and leads this group in attacking specifically gay rights, the right of women to access abortion, and of course, that ultimate evil - feminism. He and his number two man, Charl van Wyk, are also leaders of the pro gun/survivalist movement in SA, and have formed very close ties to similar groups all over the world, but most especially - and notably, in the USA. In 2005-6 Hammond was a prominent figure in the combined religious right war against marriage equality in South Africa, often featuring vicious homophobic slander and defamatory disinformation intended to incite hatred and hostility towards GLBTI people, which was ostensibly protected under legal clauses indemnifying "freedom of religion".
Speaking of vicious slander and disinformation, who of you still remember the book "The Pink Agenda" - yes, that's right - the one that was nothing more than blatant lies and hate speech against our community? Hammond was one of the authors, along with the woman who was a spokes-person of the African Christian Democratic Party at the time.
Mr. Hammond, far from being restricted to activities resembling stochastic terrorism in South Africa alone, has been linked to numerous other like-minded fanatical groups overseas. For example, he is or has been a member of at least one radical US fundamentalist group, along with high profile figures such as the late JR Rushdoony. Just look up who that was online quick, and understand the implications. Try not to choke on your coffee while doing so.
He earned the nickname of the “paintball pastor” for "allegedly" shooting a child in the face with a paintball gun for trick-or-treating on Halloween in Cape Town, and has adopted a low profile since the case disappeared from the radar, with no mention of an outcome. CAN's voice these days seems to be that of its "international co-ordinator" Taryn Hodgeson, who speaks for the group in SA as well as in the Netherlands.
Last year, Peter Hammond and Erroll Naidoo attempted to coerce all “Christian” political parties in SA to unite before the elections into what they called a "Republican Party for South Africa". Yes, that bombed - this time - but as they say, "watch this space".
Erroll Naidoo - and his pet project, the Family Policy Institute (FPI), are supported by the Family Research Council (USA) – an organization registered in the USA as a hate group, which is directly tied to Focus On The Family. The FPI is part of the Christian Action network, and Naidoo has delivered lectures for CAN previously. He is also one of the editors of the radical fundamentalist Christo-fascist magazine “Joy!”, which is also shown as being part of CAN.
Naidoo has freely admitted to hating GLBTI people in an interview with the press and has been campaigning to ban emerging Pride events all over SA since 1993. The FPI has a “parliament watch” function to "report on liberal activities in Parliament" and to call for fundamentalist action, i.e. protests, petitions etc. on items they disagree on. He sends out newsletters, gives presentations, raises funds. He networks with religious and political figures local and abroad, including MPs of various parties and brags of increasing fundamentalist influence in South Africa's government. He is currently engaged, with the assistance of government ministers (at least according to him), in setting up anti-pornography and media censorship laws to bring the public media in line with "Christian" fundamentalist values.
As an aside, I wonder if he is also busy finding jobs or money to feed all the prostitutes and "abused women" he intends putting out of work to "protect" their dignity and human rights? Probably not - just like his mentors and sponsors abroad, Naidoo seems far more concerned about throwing out the bathwater than retaining the baby within it.
Another recent example I can mention is a website called Homosexuality.org.za. It is operated by a certain Dr. Peet Botha who has been a frequent guest speaker at CAN (a.k.a. "Christians For Truth" - ha-ha LOL) various homophobic meetings, and presents himself as an "expert" on homosexuality, although there is nothing to suggest that he has any expertise in this matter at all, other than his say-so. This site has for some time belted out the usual droll right-wing "biblical" message that gay people are cursed and hated by the Christian God (and Dr. Peet Botha, naturally) and are thus damned to hell.
This to me again raises the point that these people seem to believe in a very loving, inclusive and Christ-like "God" indeed, and this truly puts the paradoxical phrase "God-fearing" into perspective.
The website appears to be "undergoing maintenance" at the moment (i.e. vanished without a trace), otherwise I would've provided screenshots or links - but before, there were downloadable articles penned by the good doctor - articles which I still have to this day, which reveal this "expert in homosexuality" to be nothing more than the usual common-or-garden religious fundamentalist bigot and charlatan. The harm done by his "ministry" of course is simply written off as "good works" or "collateral damage".
Unlike many clergymen, who jump on their religious soapboxes to expound their hatred for GBTLI people, Dr. Peet H. Botha did not in fact acquire his title from some diploma mill or other, and is - as a matter of interest, a Dr. of philosophy. That academic qualification still doesn't qualify him in the least to present himself as an "expert on homosexuality" as he claims to be - rather just an expert in representing the irrational homophobic hatred for homosexuality in a Christian (or Christo-fascist) context.
Botha is the former head of the Kwasazibuntu Mission in KZN (also a member group of CAN), which unsurprisingly also used to push a notably anti-diversity message of heterosexist intolerance. I am surprised that the government or the Department of Education allows such shady characters with questionable human rights ethics to have anything to do with the youth. After all, is there not already enough hatred and intolerance in a country which has already seen too much of both?
Moving on, we come to Ray McCaulley – charismatic pastor and leader of the Rhema cult. He's unpopular with some other conservative religious groups in SA because he has come to be seen as a hypocrite (even by them, which points me to the old saying about honor among thieves, there being none, etc.). However, in spite of this, McCaulley has been recently winning support because of his recent moves to attack pro gay rights and abortion laws and the Constitution, and by associating his cult with the ANC - a move surprisingly reciprocated by Jacob Zuma.
Meanwhile, the Rhema cult recently “lost” several key employees in their PR and media departments to the employ of the ANC - and to the office of the Presidency. On the down-low, it was recently revealed that the Rhema cult’s sub-group the NILC receives DIRECT government support and is now engaged in finding ways to extend conservative religious influence further into SA government under the guise of “moral regeneration” (predictable, aren't they?) and with close involvement of various government figures. The NILC leadership includes several ANC MP’s, including the Chief Whip of Parliament, and several of these are also lay preachers or pastors.
Recently, more new groups have been formed within South Africa's copy-cat wannabe US Republican religious right, to attack gay rights - along with an upsurge in activity from existing ones. This overall movement appears to be getting some support from the SA government - or at least from elements within it, whether direct or tacit. Homophobia is again appearing more frequently and more prominently in South African society, in public, in the media, in the press. Disinformation campaigns are mounting, and attempts to address these are being met with increasing opposition. Lately, the so-called "ex-gay" industry began to also gain favor with the South African religious right wing, which is increasingly waging a media and disinformation campaign against freedom, diversity, democracy and equality, and this campaign is becoming increasingly coordinated and is also gaining momentum.
Unlike in countries like Uganda - where there are no legal protections for people on the grounds of their gender identities or sexual orientation - these groups have begun to learn that in order to proceed and make territorial gains, they need to tread slowly and carefully in order to influence those in charge of the system - or to gradually replace them - to change it in their favor from within.
Since this is primarily a religious war being waged on not just GLBTI people, but on all forms of liberty and freedom - most especially freedom FROM religion, we should enlist the aid of positive/affirming religious groups and secular groups to speak out on the religious attack on our community and human rights wherever possible.
With regard to the disinformation campaigns brought against us, we need to counter disinformation with credible and true information that would leave no doubt at all in the minds of those exposed to it. Those who deny scientific evidence that contradicts religious bigotry will expose themselves as irrational, science-denying conspiracy theorists worthy of being fitted with tin-foil hats and battery clamps.
As for education, we should enlist as far as possible those progressive educational centers, libraries and any entities willing to aid the process of education in truth and fact rather than conjecture, lies, dogma and propaganda.
HOW?
Enlist the heterosexual and cisgender sector, form alliances with the straight sector human rights groups, and if they don’t exist, help people to establish them. This includes religious, civic, and political groups. The right wing likes to claim GLBTI people are unpatriotic, anti-social, anti-religious, “immoral" and “anti-family” - because they exclude us from these things in order to claim, rather conveniently, that we are "not interested in being involved". The best way to prove them wrong is by INVOLVEMENT.
The right wing’s biggest weapon against us is their biggest weakness. …………Care to guess what it is? FAMILY
WHY?
Because as everyone knows, WE ARE Family.
Statistically, we occur in EVERY family. That’s right, every single family out there is likely to have one of us, either GLBTI or Q. Aside from that, each and every one of us HAS a FAMILY – people who know us, people we can educate, enlighten and enlist to the cause of human rights. This represents a vast and as yet untapped resource in terms of the battle for human rights in SA. Bigots in SA are increasingly using the same tactics and disinformation about us as those employed in the USA – uneducated people fall for their lies and fallacies and support them. WE MUST EDUCATE THEM FIRST!
How do we do this? Well, in the USA there is a group called PFLAG - which stands for Parents & Friends of Lesbians And Gays, and it consists of not only members of the pink community - but also straight friends and relatives - all united in the goal of standing against oppression and bigotry on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It means for each of the statistical one in ten people who are GLBT or I, there are several straight family members or friends - and if you educate them and set even a few of them to work, you effectively increase your voice and influence. In South Africa, there are already a few groups with PFLAG initiatives and programs - some of them are even calling them "PFLAG". Examples are OUT LGBT Wellbeing and IAM. ECGLA in Port Elizabeth is already in the process of setting one up, and SA GLAAD is considering it.
This brings me to what I call "the Harvey Milk principle": If they know one of us, then they will know who we are. If they know who we are, they will know they are being fed lies by our enemies. This also means…… COMING OUT. Yes, I know the black community fears this part the most, since they are the ones most affected by this hatred and ignorance, expressed in the form of rape and violent crime. But where it is safe to do so on a personal basis, I urge you all to do so.
And so, in conclusion - building up broader community support will lessen the effectiveness of the right wing’s disinformation campaign and recruiting drive, increase public awareness of the facts around GLBTI people, increase the support base for our inclusion in general human rights values, encourage other groups to assist our fight for equality and to defend the Constitution, and expose the dangers posed by the radical groups and their motives.
I cannot stress enough how much WE NEED TO DO THIS.
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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.
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Thanks, Arnold :)
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