Resistance To Change

I have seen Puritanism being described as "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy", and I have to agree that puritans, a.k.a religious fundamentalists are the embodiment of the "Fun Police".

Everywhere people dare to have more fun than them, they appear, stern-faced, outraged and protesting. Whatever it is, a casino, the Sexpo in Cape Town or a Pride march - they show up in order to try to drain the fun and enjoyment out of it like a great big serious, religious black hole - which has far more in common with the reality of it than being a mere literal device.

They see threats everywhere - and honestly, the way they have been going on the past decade or so, whining about gay rights threatening the fabric of society, religion, morality of the country and the "family unit" - before long I think they will have us seeing threats in our soup. Amazingly enough, not a single one of the "threats" they have warned of have come to pass, and most certainly none that could ever be connected to the pink community.

They see every group trying to achieve equality with them as a threat, because obviously if they become equal to them, THEY won't be able to stomp all over their human rights anymore. Duh.

Behind The Benevolent Facade Of Eugenics, A Genocidal Monster Lurks!

Most of us know the biblical legend of Adam and Eve. Eve, being the wife of Adam, made from Adam's rib and created (at least according to the patriarchal fairy tale) subservient to Adam. Not many people actually are aware that Eve was God's second attempt. That's right - Adam, the first man, was a divorcee. (So much for the so-called sanctity of marriage, James Dobson.) Adam's first wife was Lilith - and Lilith unlike Eve, was created equal with Adam - but she questioned the authority supposedly given Adam over her by God. And she didn't like the idea of a life in servitude. And who among us today can blame her? Because of Adam's treatment of her, she rebelled - making her the very first feminist - and human rights activist!

Consequently, Lilith is often regarded as a heroine for feminists. Lilith, for her pains and for daring to challenge Adam's patriarchal position as head of "the family", was ostracized by God, and chased out of Eden. According to lore and myth, both ancient Hebrew and Mesopotamian, Lilith was turned into a night-demon - and among other things, has been called the "mother of all Vampires". (Now there's one for the Twilight fans!)

Is Christianity Biological or Environmental?

(The following was inspired by a rather weak and badly researched religious fundamentalist attempt to discredit medical and scientific evidence which shows that a person's sexuality and gender are determined by biological factors. Enjoy - and please folks, don't take it personally - see it for the tongue-in-cheek dig it is!)

We all know somebody who identifies as Christian. Most of us are too ashamed to admit it, and shy away from such things. We live in fear of the day our son or daughter may come to us and tearfully admit "Mom, Dad, I'm a Christian." Oh, the shame!

We know these deviants are active in society, in our government, in our schools, on TV, in the media - they're everywhere, and everywhere they are, they're pushing their agenda. Very credible scientists now believe they spread by recruiting others into their unhealthy, narrow-minded, and dangerous lifestyle, perverting people's morality and just generally taking the fun out of everything.

Resistance Is Futile

Thinking about all the gay-hating homophobic and transphobic groups infesting our fair country today, and masquerading as religious or even educational or even civil institutions - I counted the big boys. 

 

Right at the top of the list of lunatics, there's the "Christian Action Network" (CAN), a vocal umbrella body which appears to operate like a sort of sanctuary for the crazies - a haven for smaller independently created activist bodies set up around a seemingly shared or common (I mean, really common) ideology of Christo-fascism. Together, they share the limelight from whatever local press will be desperate enough to give them attention, resources, and of course, rotate their talking heads to address rallies, meets and whatever these people get up to in their spare time.

 

After occasionally stirring up all sorts of drama over "blasphemy" in student magazines, publishing perverse false "expose's" on homosexuality, and whipping the minority of religious conservatives in South Africa into a froth about "moral" issues like abortion and the "Sexpo" in Cape Town, this body - which I would eagerly describe as a nest of domestic terrorists, has fallen remarkably quiescent of late. 

 

In the meantime, other, newer associated groups which haven't been around the political stage quite long enough to lose their veneer of public respectability yet, have emerged to take their shared repugnant anti human rights agenda into the halls of South Africa's government.

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.

Of Proof And Puddings

The evidence against South Africa's government as being homophobic continues to mount. 

 

Remember how it started in December 2008 when the SA government refused to sign the UN Declaration to Decriminalize Homosexuality? Well, obviously it didn't end there.

SOUTH AFRICA FAILS LGBT PEOPLE AT UN - "In February 2009, South Africa acted as spokesperson for African nations demanding the removal of references to sexual orientation from the draft declaration of the second UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance." How much more proof do you need that SA's government has an anti GLBTI, anti human rights agenda?

The above article described this as "failing the GLBTI people". In my opinion this is not "failing LGBT people" - it is an outright BETRAYAL!

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.

The Smell Of Fear

The forces who today oppose the struggle for recognition, equality and human rights of others think of themselves as strong. 

 

They stand today at the top of the pile, glorying in the lie that all people already are equal and have equal rights. 

 

They claim that those whose fingers they have spent countless years treading upon, are not fighting for equal rights, but "special rights" that will somehow elevate us above them. 

 

They look down on decades, centuries of suffering, persecution and abuse - and somehow still lack the conscience and humanity to acknowledge the sorrow, unfairness and inhumanity they have forced upon their own peers and relatives for so long - for the terrible injustice it is.

State Of Grace

Isn't it sad and funny how the worst in some people tends to bring out the best in others? Or is that the other way round? You know these people, trying to live the good life, walk the straight and narrow. The people who take it a step further, going beyond minding their own business, and starting to mind the business of others. The manic street preachers and interfering busy-bodies who think they are doing "God's work" and that the end justifies the means, no matter how messy the means.

Do we really need to listen to people telling us about how great they think their god is? I am fine with what I believe - I don't need some twat standing on a street corner with a bible in one hand and a bull-horn in the other, telling me what to believe. Who are they trying to convince? Us? Or themselves?

What other people believe doesn't really other me, except where their beliefs are acted out in such a way as to affect my safety, my rights, and my future, with the potential to ruin my life.

What other people believe shouldn't (be allowed to) hurt me.

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.

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.

Making The Difference

I want to focus today on Africa, and African affairs. Of late, African countries all around South Africa have been flaunting an increase in their peculiar brand of homophobia, laced with ignorance - often deliberately willful ignorance - on matters of medicine, science, fact - and tasting remarkably of religious fundamentalism. 

 

Relating to this issue, an item came across my inbox today, which was forwarded to me by a friend. It was a message from an ACDP support group on Facebook, and it went as follows:

"Jo-Ann Downs May 27, 2010 at 2:28pm Subject: DRC visit

I am off to Lubumbashi in DRC tomorrow to teach about 1000 Church leaders about getting involved in improving the country. Need lots of prayer. There are so many terrible things happening to women and children I hope to really make a difference."

This of course, is where the ACDP completely crosses the line between religion and politics, and works to blur the line separating church and state as well - which it already does, simply by existing as a registered political party.

It's A Small World, After All

When Uganda recently tabled its Bill which would effectively have instituted the death penalty for homosexuality and a pink genocide, many countries applied great pressure to Uganda to drop the Bill. So far this Bill has been put on hold, yet in Uganda gay people still face an existing law which prescribes a 14-year prison term simply for being gay - just as in Malawi and several other former colonial African countries.

Malawi has just this week rewarded a gay couple with the maximum prison term for loving each other - 14 years of hard labor, a potential - and even likely death sentence in such a prison. The world has begun to apply pressure on Malawi too because of this outrageous human rights abuse, but the question remains - how much pressure will they apply, and what will happen if Malawi doesn't budge?

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".

Hate The Sin, Hate The Sinner

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. 

Or does it?

Alternative Healing

I was impressed by two stories this week. I know, it is only Tuesday, but I am already beginning to think it will take something pretty extraordinary to top the past few days, at least for me - and at least, in the field of human rights in South Africa. 

Owning The 'H' Word

The "H" word. 

 

We all know it. 

 

We have all felt it. 

 

Sometimes we use it to describe traffic jams, the stuff we find on our sandwiches, the work we do, or getting up on a Monday morning. 

 

We use it so easily, but sometimes things happen to us that we can't control - things that are done to us by other people who for that moment, had control over our lives and made us feel powerless, insignificant and small. 

 

And then it is that we redirect the injury done to us by others back at them - and make it all worse.

We own the "H" word, and we eagerly claim it with both hands - not realizing that it is not us who wields it, but it which wields us.

 

The word I'm discussing here is, "hate".

Hate is bad for everybody.

What's Your Handicap?

Today I want to talk about handicaps - such as religion. And when I say "handicap", I mean in terms of driving with the handbrake still on. That's right, like having lead weights put in your pack to slow you down. Or your golfing handicap. Yes, that's a better description - because without that handicap, you could score so much higher. In fact I think that describes exactly what I mean.

Ulterior Motives

Why do South Africa's law enforcement agencies not seem to be curbing or preventing violent crime incidents plaguing us of late?

Two likely reasons come to mind:

1) Because they are really unable to curb or prevent violent crime and don't want to admit it, or

2) Because they want the country to be or at least appear to be becoming ungovernable.

Of course, one would have to really wonder why the second reason might apply... except if, for example, they might later need to "justify" a reactionary crackdown on societal or democratic freedoms.

Surely I am exaggerating? I don't know, am I?

Asking myself this question, I am confronted with several interesting facts.

At the top of the list of these interesting facts, is the detail that something like this is beginning to happen right now with the pending reintroduction of media censorship.