Turkey Day

It's Thanksgiving Day in "the land of the free", or so the story goes.

 

The "Land of the Free". It makes you think, doesn't it?

I wonder what native Americans are thankful for on Thanksgiving? Don't you?

Without being facetious - have you ever stopped to really, actually think about it?

Just Keep Swimming

These days I find myself referring to the little blue fish in that adorable movie "Finding Nemo", the one that kept on saying "just keep swimming". And no matter what, no matter how bad things got in the movie, that was her philosophy, and she stuck to it - "just keep swimming". I can't help but draw comparisons between circumstances and the wisdom and stoicism of that little fish - or the writer for that matter. No matter what happens next, no matter how much people surprise - or shock, or disappoint me.

Since when did we Pink folks in South Africa start looking down on and judging other people by their inborn characteristics? When did we decide we were too good to socialize with or compete with others? Where did this smarmy superior attitude and this mentality of "if we can't win, then it must be rigged" come from? When did we decide that gay people are equal to straight people, but some gay people are more equal than others?

Religion - The Guilt-Edged Sword

When we think of human relationships, the relationships between people, whether friendships or romances, we often come to a point where there is a parting of ways - a place where friendships stop being rewarding, when a love relationship ceases to be a love relationship and just devolves into something less. Just like a marriage where the love has exited stage left, all things end - and attempting to keep them alive artificially serves no purpose other than to drag things out to the very bitter, painful end.

Guilt shouldn't bind you to a person or trap you in a failed relationship. If it isn't love that keeps you there, but guilt - then you're both better off with someone else - or alone, because otherwise you will be doing yourself (and each other) more harm than good.

In many ways, the same thing can be said about religion.

Shout Louder

In 2008 a journalist working for the Sunday Sun wrote an article which insulted gay people and women, encouraged conservatives to remove the rights of gay people from the SA Constitution, and also thumbed his nose at the Human Rights Commission by saying that he would never be made to apologize. More than two years later, it seems Jon Qwelane has been proved right.

Not only has it taken two years for this man to be charged for his offensive publications, but now that the Human Rights Commission has finally managed to get the process to the point where it can go to court, Mr Qwelane suddenly 'cannot be traced' to be served with notice that he should appear in court - effectively holding up the whole process.

Where, I wonder, is Mr Qwelane? Perhaps the tracers diligently searching for him have been asking in the wrong places. Have they asked the Government?

The Judas Church

In a shameful turn of events, the Methodist Church of South Africa has today betrayed the trust of all its non heterosexual members and supporters - and its foundational message of inclusive worship - by upholding the guilty verdict handed down at an earlier internal hearing which discontinued the services of Methodist minister Ecclesia de Lange - a Methodist minister who is also a gay woman for daring to marry her partner albeit in another church.

The Methodist Church of South Africa has thus fumbled a perfect opportunity to right past wrongs, to truly show a meaningful welcome to the pink community in its ranks - and has instead chosen to compound them by affirming instead rejection and bigotry.

Now all GLBTI people know that the leadership of the Methodist Church of South Africa is not welcoming and affirming - but is merely tolerant - and only tolerant up to a point of law.

If The Shoe Fits...

My would-be Facebook 'friend' wrote to me again yesterday. I say "would-be", because were it not for the tiny detail that I am a transsexual woman romantically involved with another transsexual woman, and the minor aside that this would-be friend is a "bible-believing Christian" who thinks I have made a "sinful lifestyle choice", we might actually be friends. At least she seems to think so. I on the other hand, am not a masochist.

All You Need

Two thousand years ago a man came to Earth who was called the "Messiah", and who sought to reconcile God and Humanity. The religious called him the "Son of God" and the "Son of Man" and also the "New Covenant", by which the sins of all were wiped clean with his blood. Oddly enough, there are those today who call themselves his followers and him "King Jesus" while "evangelizing" to transform the world into perfect little sinless utopias - and who, by stark contrast also reject completely that which he stood for.

I have often found it strange, if not a little gory that blood is such a recurring theme in the Christian faith - and even more disappointing that it is being supplemented by fresh blood in modern times.

Pass The Bucket

How many people have died since the dawn of humankind? Millions? Billions? Hundreds of billions? And of those people who have passed into the great hereafter, have any of them EVER returned to this life to tell us of what awaits the living on the other side? No? I don't know anybody who ever died and came back to say, "you know, Tina - the afterlife is pretty cool - I just sat around and ate peeled grapes all day and bantered with God - but I thought it was so cool I should come back and tell you about it." Like I say, I don't know anybody like that. Do you? 

Does ANYBODY?