New Living Ways Ministry SA Seeks Human Rights For 'Ex-Gays'

This morning I found an item in my mailbox from Andre' Bekker, a representative of "New Living Way Ministry" - an 'ex-gay' group in South Africa. 

 

It was headed "An Open Letter to the Gay Community and Activists", and its content can be read right at the bottom of this article. 

 

I have no idea who else has received a copy of this letter, but since it was headed 'an open letter', I presume it was meant for the whole LGBT community in South Africa, and of course activists such as myself.

Ignorance Is Not A Legitimate 'Point Of View'

The debate around the St Marks "Sex in the City - Is Gay Okay?" discussion held at the church three weeks ago just doesn't seem to want to die. 

You can view the video I took here: https://youtu.be/00-u-tJwh-o

Homophobes continue to post their ignorant remarks  in such a manner as if to show that a) they know what they are talking about and b) they have some kind of hand-written note from "God" to authorize them to hate and to persecute others in its name.

Yes sirree, Port Elizabeth has a "prophet" in its 'burbs - another one who claims to know what "God" said and meant, intent on not letting anyone get on with their lives without being told off for being the "lustful sinners" they are.

In today's episode, let's look at the comment made by a Nigel Wakeford, a regular in the Herald "chirps" column. In my humble opinion, Mr Wakeford is just showing his ignorance. 

St Marks Dr Woolard Reject Science As 'Claptrap' Since It Doesn't Suit Their Prejudice

I note with amusement in the letters column of today's Herald, that Dr Woolard still hasn't provided any of his alleged scientific sources which he claims to prove that LGBT people are the consequence of molestation, pedophilia, "broken homes" or masturbation. 

Instead, he has dismissed the findings of respected researchers in the medical field as "claptrap" in favor of persecuting LGBT people on the merit of his own apparent "medical expertise" - or that of his colleague who was a medical student once, apparently. 

That, Dr Woolard, is a demonstration of pseudo-science - twisting the name of science to suit your own prejudice, in an attempt to lend it some standing - but with no basis in fact. 

Book Review: 'The Pink Agenda' by Christine Mc Cafferty & Peter Hammond

I read this item a number of years ago. Twice. Seeing it listed on Goodreads.com made me see red, and prompted me to write a review on it. 

The lies and hatred contained within it's pages made me so angry that I had to keep putting it down and take regular breaks to avoid ripping this disgusting item into itty-bitty pieces and burning each one while singing something energetic involving a lot of hand-actions and expletives. 

St Marks 'Is Gay Okay?' - A Rebuttal

This past Monday I reported on the "Sex in the City" discussion which was advertised in the Weekend Post by St Marks Congregational church, being on the question "Is Gay Okay?" The elusive answer was buried among layers of propaganda and subterfuge, masked by verbose tap-dancing, foot-shuffling and showmanship - and turned out to be a somewhat muffled "no". 

I'm not normally given to re-posting private conversations, but I thought that this occasion warranted it. First, to show that there were no ill-feelings between myself and St Marks - or at least, between myself and Reverend Claassen; and second, to show, post facto, that civil dialog had indeed taken place. The intensity - and to borrow a word from the good reverend - the conviction I felt while writing my response to him - and in writing this article, I felt, swayed me to post it here. I feel it reflects in my words, and I hope they penetrate - not just by getting through to the reverend - but to Christians, churches and their related groups everywhere which continue to separate and to isolate and denigrate people based on a self-defined need to be "right", judgmental and self-righteous - and where this results in hardship, cruelty and harm to others.

Read Between The Lies

In a somewhat unusual move for me, I went to a church service on Sunday 18 Aug - unusual because I am not a Christian and haven't been since I renounced the religion and all its tenets in 2010, and have affiliated with Pagan religion in the meantime. 

On the bright side, at least I didn't actually burst into flames.

I didn't go there because I had a sudden change of heart, nor because I needed to take my mother to her church. No, I went because this church, St Marks Congregational, had placed an advertisement in a public newspaper, the Weekend Post, headlined "Is Gay Okay?" 

Knowing the conservative right-wing nature of most evangelical charismatic churches in Port Elizabeth, I decided to go and see what they were about, and what they meant by their question - and the placement of something that should not even be questioned any more in my view, given the modern scientific and human rights rationale.

Self-Hatred Is Not Therapy

My good friend Tanya and I were having a chat yesterday. She's a straight Christian friend to a pan-romantic transsexual dark Pagan - me. Our chat took the direction of discussing Christian gay people who believe they are condemned to Hell because of their inborn sexuality. I thought I would add my two cents using some information I have been collecting over a number of years, pretty much because I have been fighting a war of words with people who seek to condemn gays, lesbians, bi's and transgender people to "Hell" from a "Christian" perspective.

The Blood Feud Continues...

I keep hearing the SA blood "service" whining about another blood shortage - but at the same time they continue to refuse to accept blood from people who are gay. They won't accept the perfectly good blood that the Pink Community willingly offers - so as far as I'm concerned, they can just whine and whine till they run dry.

They have no reason to not accept our blood. 

None. 

Only the terminally stupid or ignorant believes that blanket discrimination is the best way to protect people from receiving HIV infected blood. The problem here is their clear refusal to screen for HIV infected blood - but they clearly have no problem with discriminating against people. And surprisingly, they are allowed by SA's government to continue blatantly thumbing their bigoted little noses at the non-discrimination clauses in our Constitution. What gives?

Out Of Focus

Has anybody taken note of what's happening in our northern neighbor Zim-BOB-we lately? 

 

Not only did they refuse to include the human rights of their pink community in the negotiations for their country's new constitution - but they are now saying they will build criminalization and punishments for homosexuality into it as well.

Can't say I'm the least bit surprised.

Sad, but true.

Hook, Line And Stinker

In a new press release in which the Family Research Council (of Focus on the Family and James Dobson infamy) dragged an eight year old "study" out of mothballs and served it up with today's sauce, they once again misrepresented scientific data to undermine human rights and promote their own fascist agenda.

"WASHINGTON, D.C. - Family Research Council released a new analytic report today showing that women who did not grow up with their biological mother and father are much more likely to engage in homosexual conduct as adults than are women who grew up in an intact family."

"Oh, goody," Some people will be thinking. "A new study to show how nasty, immoral, un-patriotic, and hostile to "the family" gay people are. And how much of a threat they pose to "our" children!"

As somebody pointed out to me, all to rightly: "Before long, phony religious right experts will be citing this study as fact. It's best to refute the lies before they have a chance to spread." And among the things recklessly promoted in this libelous and poorly researched "study" is the claim that "Women who never attend religious worship are more than three times as likely to have homosexual relationships than are women who attend worship weekly." 

 

This is exactly the sort of thing that bigot preachers will seize upon and preach from their pulpits as "gospel truth" and "fact".

Is There Something We Can Do? Yes. There is.

There are groups in South Africa which are claiming to be able to "cure" gay people, as though human sexual orientation and gender identity is some form of disease or "lifestyle choice". Their attack on human rights and freedom of expression comes ENTIRELY from the perspective of religious conservatism and fundamentalism and has no basis in fact, reality, science or medicine whatsoever.

They claim we are "broken", burdened with "unwanted SSA" (that's "Same Sex Attraction") that we are somehow in need of their intervention, and so they believe that the same God that made us gay, bisexual or trans, has duly appointed them the moral guardians to rush to our aid and to save us from our sinful natures.

I find the fact that so many people actually fall for their nonsensical prattle rather disturbing. In fact, I think it is because of a lack of education on what we are as opposed to what they say about us.

Mentally Ill

Assume for a moment that I were to commit a crime of passion - say in true Colombine fashion I were to walk into a shopping mall or a high school carrying a shotgun, and start pumping - or if I were to start playing "Carmageddon" for real. Would I be considered "sane"? What do you think, huh? Would I make a good case for a shrink to make his career with? Would I be justified in making an insanity plea in court?

Would I?

What do you think my chances are?

Blood Feud

Every year around December the South African National Blood Service starts shouting frantically that blood stocks are low and that they are desperately in need of donors. This past month I have seen the familiar call on lamp post advertising and in newspaper headings, heard their plaintive whining for blood on the radio and on TV - and cursed the SANBS under my breath every single time.

And every year around this time, many people will answer this call - whether out of civic duty or simply out of helpfulness and love for their fellow human beings, they will go to donation centers to answer this call to satiate South Africa's lust for blood.

What I find both sad and hypocritical in this scenario, is the fact that every year this time, many people who do so, will find themselves turned away and indirectly told that neither they, nor their blood - are good enough for the high and mighty standards of the SANBS.

Rubber Room With A View

Despite clear and easily understood press releases, explanations and statements released by eminent scientists to explain that diverse sexual orientation and gender identity is perfectly natural, and despite their attempts to simplify the explanations - some people, typically narrow minded religious fundamentalists, refuse to accept that gay people are born gay and transgender people, transgender.

"No, that's not it - it has to be a sin! These perverts like it - they're choose to be gay."

Quack Attack!

Quack Attack! Sounds like an old arcade game, doesn't it? Perhaps one of those old ones you used to play at the shop while waiting for your school bus in the mornings? You know the type, the multi-level adventure with stunningly lifelike cartoon characters and annoyingly simple sound effects, presented in the latest hi-tech 2-d format of the time. Yes, it sure does conjure up memories.

But no, I am not talking about arcade games, but the games people - specifically medical professionals, are playing with the lives of other people - their patients. There are a few of these in this spectrum, from the shrinks out there referring gay people to the fallacious "ex-gay" movement which falsely claims to turn gay people straight, to the quack surgeons who perform long-outdated gender reassignment surgery using bits of the victim's colon to form a vagina instead of the modern penile inversion technique - to the quacks sitting at the head of the DSM-V revision committee and doing their level best to screw it all up for everybody depending on it.

The keystone of this gripe for me is the revision to the classification of transsexuals from transsexuals to "HBS" - or "Harry Benjamin Syndrome".

Bringing Up Bigots

Yesterday I came across a blog detailing much of the same prejudiced and skewed thinking as resides in the pages of James Dobson's "Bringing Up Boys", in which the writer laid out different ways to prevent her children from being "turned gay" by exposure to "gay TV programming" - which she referred to, most originally - as "furthering the homosexual agenda".

She clearly hates gay people and her hate simmers quite clearly on her blog. Well, she can say and think what she likes - after all, it is her blog. I wouldn't stop her from making herself look stupid, it's her right to do so and she does deserve it.

This woman proudly listed some items of questionable authenticity and even relevance in her lead article such as the following:

Broken Logic

Over the last week an "ex-gay" champion engaged me in an email debate over my "leading gay people to destruction" by taking them "further away from the light of God" and "into the ways of the world".

LOL.

I brushed aside images of being a transgender "Moses" (or "Moselina") leading the downtrodden masses across a candy-floss desert in my bright pink cape, imagining various forms of burning bush and grinning annoyingly from behind my false beard. Achoo.