Where I come from, being called a bigot used to be an insult, and being called bigoted was an accusation people used to take very seriously.
Considering that I grew up in South Africa during the last years of the Apartheid regime, and was schooled under its influence, this ought to be something of a revealing scenario.
In those days, liberals used to refer to people as bigots because they were supporting and defending racist policies, and were very enthusiastic about it. Very often, the same people used to "categorically deny" being bigoted and would take such accusations very personally while often going to extremes - very often religious extremes - to try to justify their bigotry, or to discredit the applicability of the term to themselves.
To my mind this has only served to alter the concepts of accountability and responsibility in the mindset of particularly religious conservative Christians - who tend to believe that if they believe their God, Bible or pastor directs them to hate anyone or anything - or to act out of that hate against anyone or anything, then this direction is canonical and thus absolves them of any earthly accountability or responsibility.
Sadly for them, it doesn't work that way.
The South African landscape has changed since the days of Apartheid, both politically and socially. Not just for the Afrikaner nationalists who call F.W. De Klerk a "veraaier" (traitor) after they were booted out of government in 1994, but also for GLBT people - and also people of other religions in South Africa, funnily enough.
Back in the day, it wasn't just Christianity that was the official state religion, but it was the Dutch Reformed (N.G. Kerk) Church which held that privileged position - and abused it to reinforce the dictum that Apartheid was biblical and based in sound Christian theological foundations - just like a lot of American right wingers today claim of slavery. It was largely left up to the English-speaking churches to criticize the policies of Apartheid - and the National Party government, from the sidelines.
When I was a child, I remember my minister at St. John's Methodist, the Rev. George Irvine, occasionally making news headlines for participating in, or leading, protests against Apartheid. While I thought this was really brave and noble of him, I also noticed the sheer amount of scorn and hatred and hostility that other people - white people of course - heaped upon him. These same people also, funnily enough, identified themselves - and their ingrained racism - as Christian.
Back then, paradoxically, it was "Christian" to support Apartheid and racism. It was "Christian" to be patriotic and to support the National Party. And just as these things were regarded as "Christian", it was also regarded as "Christian" to oppose, object to and undermine them.
Yes, I can see where this all doesn't make an ounce of sense. It's fucking insane. You see, the religion itself is so open to interpretation, misrepresentation and usurpation that a gifted and persuasive tongue could make it mean anything to anyone, or distort it to support any cause, or to justify any act - no matter how wrong, cruel or hateful.
Be that as it may, what I'd like to address in this article, is how the objects of such deliberately directed malice, hatred, objectification and persecution, seem to be fairly transitory or even variable.
It is no longer fashionable (or legal) for churches and political parties to attack people for being black, or to use religion to support their outmoded views. Since Abrahamic religion - and Christianity in particular - has a 2000 year history of rallying its adherents into a corral to unite them against various threats, both real and imaginary, it was only to be expected that they would have to find another new "enemy" to unite and rally against.
As we are so often reminded, "queer is the new black".
In South Africa we have some small minority parties which are called "conservative" because they are staunchly religious fundamentalist in nature and cannot in their minds or in their policies separate the concepts of politics and the rules and regulations inherent to their particular religions. In fact, in my humble opinion, were it not for the detail that these groups have registered as actual political parties, they should actually be put on a list of domestic terrorist organizations - because even while they try to garner votes at the polls, they behave just like terrorists do.
Oh, they haven't planted bombs as of yet, but what they do is to incite hatred, rejection, exclusion, oppression and even violence as a pastor would from a church pulpit - and they take that same hateful intent into Parliament with them, and they work very hard to try to force that into whatever laws they can influence. By their very existence, you see, these religious extremist groups masquerading as ostensibly respectable political parties represent a "bomb" that has been planted inside a secular government. And whenever these bombs detonate, they chip away at the wall which supposedly separates religion and state.
Such conservative parties - and there are quite a few that identity as "Christian" this, that or the other, which despite their claims of speaking on behalf of all "true" Christian South Africans, only form a very small, very vocal minority in the country.
Perhaps this is fortunate, because their beliefs and policies are radical and extreme, and their reactions to democratic ideals such as freedom, equality and liberty - are well, reactionary. It's no surprise to me that they scare away the moderates. They hijack the stage and the microphone away from the moderate majority and take pride in blurring the lines between what is church and what is state, between fact and fiction - and what is Christian, and what is not Christian.
Since shortly before the birth of the South African democracy in 1994, these political parties - together with a swarm of associated support groups - have actively pursued a goal of spreading malicious myths and slanderous "ex-gay" propaganda in South African culture in order to cultivate their support base among Christians.
Surprisingly, the leading figures of these parties do not so much as flinch when they are called bigots, nor do they even try to deny it anymore.
They make light of the name, they joke about it being applied to them, and laughingly embrace it, because they feel it reflects that they are sticking to the "true principles" of their faith - which is, sad to say - notably fundamentalist in nature.
[Edit 2024: looking back, this seems remarkably similar to the reactions of virtually the entire US right wing to being referred to as 'deplorables' before and after January 6, 2020. They were actually proud of being traitors to their country and equated with acts of domestic terrorism. How telling.]
Looking at life on a smaller scale, the sentiments expressed by the leaders of such groups carry across to the lowest level - "grass-roots level" it has been termed. Thus, we see the hatred, bigotry and prejudice espoused by these leader-figures given substance by their supporters and willing stooges on the ground.
As part of the pink community, we have all tasted bigotry, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia and prejudice first-hand. We've heard it in "polite" company, in the so-called "jokes" told in impolite company, when we're told to "lighten up, it's only a joke", being the target of the pastor's acidic sermons, in refusals to allow us to attend school or work dances or events with our partners, and in fearing for losing our jobs, homes - or our very lives - all because of who we love, or how we identify.
The whole issue of anti-gay and anti-trans bigotry a.k.a. homophobia and transphobia, stems from the misconception that being gay or trans is an "identity" - that gay and trans people only do gay and trans things and exist completely outside what they see as a purely heterosexual and cisgender society.
In their minds, gay people are so far removed from "normal" straight people that they do only gay things.
Gay people, as far as they can tell, wake up gay every morning, get out of their little gay beds, go have a little gay breakfast, have a little gay shower, throw on some gay glitter, get dressed in their little gay clothes, and go to work to their little gay jobs and attend little gay meetings with little gay agendas.
It never seems to cross their minds at all that gay people are just people who live life exactly the way they do. It never occurs to them that being gay isn't what gay people are or how they live - but simply WHO they love.
Why should these people try to get to know gay or transgender people? After all, they're not people in the "same way" as they perceive themselves as people, are they? They don't eat the same food, laugh at the same jokes, drive the same cars, or watch the same movies as they do. The same things that make us hurt, cry, laugh, bleed - don't affect them in the same way, do they? These people like to claim that it is impossible for us to worship the same Gods they do, or to be "true" Christians or Muslims, etc. - as they obviously are, just because of their inborn sexual orientation and gender. Lucky them. Some would even like to pretend that our lives are not as precious as theirs, and that we don't breathe the same air or bleed the same color as they do.
And when I see reports of the protests in Uganda over the past year, and other places around the world - where people who claim to be good people simply because of what God they claim to follow (regardless of how they blatantly flout even the basic tenets of their faith) baying for the blood of people they do not even know, who have done them no wrong, I have to wonder if there is something in the water.
People hate gay and trans people because they do not know us. And because of the lies they've been told and taught to believe, they usually don't want to know us. They reject offers of friendship because they don't know us - and because they don't know us, they are afraid to get to know us. It is a vicious circle - about as vicious as the incident reported in the Sunday papers where the "God-fearing Christian woman" got her rocks off kicking a gay woman in the crotch repeatedly "in the name of the Lord".
I can guess she wasn't really trying to "kick her straight" as euphemistically claimed - but that she was kicking her out of pure, brutal, unadulterated, honest-to-God hatred, and probably wouldn't have stopped to kill her unless something happened to intervene, eventually, in spite of her husband supposedly holding bystanders at bay.
I find myself admitting that it is a refreshing change to see an example of this under-emphasized honesty. Don't you agree? I think it makes a change from the staid and restrained suit-and-tie bullshit rhetoric these folks recite on TV interviews, like "Hate the sin, but love the sinner", because the truth is, and we all know this - it is utterly impossible to not hate someone when you hate what they are. And someone who is gay, or trans IS gay or trans. Full stop.
I think that fact alone speaks volumes about these people. How can one separate a person from themselves? How can HATE ever come out of the same vessel that contains love? If we think of God, and are reminded of Christ who commanded people to forgive each other "seventy times seven" - how can we EVER believe that we are expected by God to hate others, for whatever reason?
Yes, I think the bible mentions God hating "sin" - but that is God, not us.
It also says that "vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" - also not ours, funny enough. People do not seek vengeance out of love, they seek it out of hatred and anger. Vengeance and hatred is for God to deal with, not us. We are supposed to forgive, at least - we are, if you subscribe to the bible. I find it so odd that so many "Christian" fundamentalists repeatedly miss this point and view the trappings of their religion as weapons of war.
Good people do not do things like this. Demanding that people be marooned on an island and starved as punishment for how they are born and for who they love? When did that ever come out of Christ's mouth? Kicking somebody into a coma because of who she loves? People who do this sort of thing and claim to do it "because" they are followers of a man who symbolizes through his life and death the principles of self-sacrifice, selfless love, acceptance and pacifism - are not only liars, but malicious, deceitful frauds and hypocrites as well. They bring shame and embarrassment down on the people who really do believe in that God and who really do live close to the peaceful all-inclusive teachings of Christ.
This brings me to the point that since GLBTI people are born the way they are, and cannot help being what they are (and nor should they) - it is obvious that those persecuting them have made the choice to persecute - and to live a lifestyle which enables it. It is therefore not gay people who have chosen a "lifestyle" - but rather these fundamentalists.
I want to close with something I heard yesterday, and I love it: "Being gay isn't a choice, but living a fabulous lifestyle is!"
Being criticized over a matter of "choice" when you had none makes no sense until you look at the people persecuting you. They are the ones who at some time made a choice in their lives to (as they put it) live "a Christian lifestyle" - thus, since they have made a choice to live as they do, and are oblivious to the facts behind gender identity and sexual orientation, they assume that people just wake up one day and decide to be gay or transsexual. And since they have no idea what their scriptures really say or mean, they get it into their heads that being gay or trans is somehow a grave sin, an "abomination" and worthy of death and any other unspeakable things they can sneak past the censors. That, of course, and convincing other people to see things their way, because they are too lazy to go and find out the truth of things themselves. It is far easier to just give in to the fear and hatred brought about by ignorance.
If it comes down to choice, and I look at the lifestyle these people who claim to be "good" are living, and the lifestyle they would force upon me if they had the chance, I'm afraid I can't see they have a damned thing to offer me.
I don't know what these bigots are putting in their corn flakes, but as a person who is wide-awake and has both eyes open, I can see the clear difference between a person - and a lifestyle.
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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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