Whatever Floats Your Ark

I read that the most banned book in the USA today is a children's book. Now what, I hear people wondering, could have parents in such a state? Is it nudity? Violence? No, nothing so mundane and ordinary I'm afraid. They have banned a beautifully illustrated children's book about two gay penguins who adopt an orphaned chick. Quite a sweet touching story, except that it teaches tolerance for diversity and that same gender couples are also families.

"Oh dear," said the bigots - "We can't have that - it could threaten the traditional family!"

Poor Taste In "Men"

Last year a transwoman in the US, 23 year old named Angie Zapata who had not yet completed her transition, was brutally and mercilessly beaten to death by a man she met and entertained at home. 

According to the police interviewed in a media article at the time, he suspected something was amiss because she hadn't allowed him to touch her genital area and because of some of the pictures in her apartment. When she admitted to him she was transgender and pre-op, this man picked up a fire extinguisher and bludgeoned her over her head with it. 

She awoke some time later while he was going through her things and he finished her off with the same weapon. Afterwards he left the scene in her vehicle. When arrested by the police he had the arrogance to say to the police that "I killed IT".

It.

Like he was talking about putting out a cigarette.

Let us put it into perspective. Angie Zapata - much loved by her friends and family as a warm and caring human being - a woman - is dead, brutally slain for no good or justifiable reason at all. Another individual - I shall not call him a "man" because a "man" does not behave like that - is on trial for his crime. And if there is justice in the USA - and I believe there still is - he will pay for his hate crime.

GLBT Voter Apathy

Three people I know recently told me they aren't bothering to vote and don't bother with politics - and I have seen numerous others online say the same. Hearing things like that make my blood boil, not because I want people to support a party of my choice - but because they are so uninterested in their own affairs - in OUR affairs as gay and trans people in South Africa.

These same people are ones who often complain about homophobia in their workplaces, the hate in the media expressed against gay and trans people - and they often wonder aloud why "somebody" doesn't do anything about it.

They cannot see that even a non-vote is a vote for our enemies who campaign against us. They simply couldn't be bothered.

What Is A Bigot?

What is a bigot, I have been asked. Well, what is a bigot? According to that treasure house of knowledge Wikipedia, "A bigot is a person who is intolerant of or takes offense to the opinions, lifestyles or identities differing from his or her own, and bigotry is the corresponding attitude or mindset. Bigot is often used as a pejorative term to describe a person who is obstinately devoted to prejudices, especially when these views are either challenged, or proven to be false or not universally applicable or acceptable.

The origin of the word bigot and bigoterie in English dates back to at least 1598, via Middle French, and started with the sense of "religious hypocrite" Forms of bigotry may have a related ideology or world views."

Gee, it looks like there have been bigots for quite a long time - and especially religious bigots.

Divide And Conquer

All arguments aside about whether being gay is a sin or not - what about those Christians who take it upon themselves to persecute gay people?

We could debate another year, and for another year people who call themselves Christians and who yet hate gay and trans people could reject all evidence to show gay and trans people are as natural as heterosexual people, as well as rejecting all reasonable religious alternatives to the choice some make to hate or to love us in the name of the same God we also love and who also loves us. But let us put that aside for a moment, and narrow it down to response.

How do you as Christians respond to other people?

We Ain’t Broke – Stop Trying To Fix Us!

Let’s take a look at religion versus sexuality in terms of how certain religious groups seem to get the idea that they can “pray away the gay”. In recent years there has been an increase in these little groups in South Africa. Certain churches are generous enough to provide programs which are guaranteed to screw gay people up completely in order to make them “normal” and in accordance with what they believe is “God’s Law”. 

One religious political party was also nice enough to make the same offer, welcoming gay people who want to “seek help” and be “made straight”. This unbelievably backward belief is generally called the “ex-gay movement” – except that they are trying to lose the bad image justifiably associated with the name, so it seems they will keep changing it every time their reputation catches up with them.

The Shuffling Of Feet

Is being gay or trans a sin? After all it is how we are born and if you believe God made everything, including humans then you have to believe that He made us as well. How is being born gay a sin any more than being born straight? Either way, sex still comes into the equation because of our innate human nature, but that is another matter for another day.

Needless to say, if it is a sin, well then - most good things in life are and have been called "sinful" - so what?