Going Mental

I know this guy, see? He's a local, claims he's a Christian - belongs to all the "right" clubs and parties - supports the CDA, ACDP, CP, UCDP - in fact any political party in South Africa with a "c" in it - okay, except possibly for THAT one. 

 

This bloke hates gay people and loves to point out all the usual verses in his holy book that support his misogyny. On his more lucid days he claims he doesn't, though you can see it right through the beatific smile on his face. On his worst days he admits to his hate and promotes the death penalty for gay people and then shifts the blame by claiming "it's not my fault - the bible tells me so". 

 

This man is proud of - and even brags about - being a Christian fundamentalist.

Oh... Fundamentalists!

Cameronian Pscience Abounds

Yesterday I found a Facebook group addressing the matter of a pending legal motion to change the legal age of consent for the youth in South Africa. 

 

The group creator doesn't stop at just attacking the suggested move to lower the age of consent for heterosexual children, but differentiates between heterosexual and gay children and then launches into insulting references to fictional anti-gay pseudo-science and propaganda aimed at gay people. 

 

In fact, it seems to me this person and her group are obsessed entirely with gay male sex - as only a small portion of the lengthy rant on its information section concerns heterosexual children at all, so it seems fairly obvious where this individual's intentions lie.

Love Versus Hate

When one looks at hate crimes such as the Tel Aviv Massacre Saturday night in which fifteen gay people were wounded and three young people killed by a masked and cowardly gunman dressed in black who entered a gay center filled with gay kids and began spraying it with automatic weapons fire and then fled - it is quite easy to reciprocate the feelings of hate. 

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.

I Know, Therefore I Am

The murder trial of the killers of Eudy Simalane made me realize a few things. 

 

One was that the hatred some people feel for gay and transgender people is alive and well - while a fine and upstanding woman like her is dead because of it - and the other is that up until I read a few articles on her death, I never knew that SA even had a national female soccer team - or that she was their captain. After searching through this muddle of emotion and drama in the circumstances surrounding this tragedy, I now realize why.

It's because of the Patriarchy.

Double Talk Heralds Double Standards

On Tuesday 28 July a letter was published in the EP Herald, a newspaper considered by many, including myself, to be a forward-thinking publication which frequently presents unbiased and fair articles touching on the topic of sexual and gender diversity. 

 

The letter was titled "Flaunting of gay lifestyles offensive" and penned by a certain Mike Jones of Port Elizabeth. In his letter Mr Jones berated the popular TV show "Top Billing" for "ramming gays down our throats every week", "as if their lifestyle is something to be proud of, particularly in a programme of this calibre". He also called gay people "deviates", and elaborated further on his personal prejudice by saying that he did not "regard homosexuality as 'cool'" and intimated how gay people whose homes were featured on the show "got up his nose".

 

The very first thing that popped into my head - after a healthy flush of adrenaline had run its course, and the thought of something a lot more satisfying I could get up Mr Jones's nose flashed through my mind, was the question why a supposedly straight and vehemently anti-gay man so obviously stricken with a case of toxic masculinity would be remotely interested in watching that TV show in the first place? But, brushing such private generalization and stereotyping aside, I decided to look into it.

Mirror Images

I was just thinking the other day about these blatant and militant heterosexuals and their lack of shame or consideration for others, their secret and insidious agenda, and it honestly made me quite mad.

Imagine parading around, shamelessly flaunting their heterosexuality in public - what are we supposed to think, I mean, really - seeing a man and a woman walking around holding hands and kissing? What about the effect on the children, seeing such shameless displays of public affection between two consenting adults? And imagine children growing up in such a home, seeing such shameless perversion! Living in a home with "parents" like that obviously has negative influences on a growing mind. Why, I am sure children from such a home would do badly at school and be underachievers for all their lives! And in the end what would prevent them from becoming heterosexual themselves? Everybody knows it is contagious and you can get it from poor upbringing!

Satan's Package

A Facebook friend left the following comment on my wall the other day:

"My girlfriend is an 'ex-miracle'. Her step family used to parade her around to their circle of churches and proclaimed to anyone that would listen that she was "HEALED" of being a lesbian. I have since been called (by these same family members) "SATANS PACKAGE".  

 

I have to wonder at their arrogance - they proclaim an all powerful God, and yet don't trust him enough to create people as He sees fit. They feel that they need to spend their lives trying to 'fix' what He created so that we all fit into perfect Christian-shaped blocks to make THEM feel acceptable. If God wanted robots he would have created robots... a whole world full of happy-clappy, heterosexual, hymn singing, judgmental pharisees."

Very true, very fitting and very well said.

Stirring The Pot

Many feel it is their duty to meddle in others lives. To them it is "helping others right", "doing good" and doing "the Lord's work". They're called missionaries, whether by themselves or their churches or by their comrades. They see others violating what they themselves consider to be the values and ethos of civilization - most typically their personal concept of what is euphemistically called "Christian civilization" (WTF is that, anyway?) - and cannot resist sticking their pointy little noses into the lives and affairs of others. Whether or not the activities of these other people actually affect them directly - or even indirectly - is of course the entire point of this perpetual debate on morality.

I suppose the very first question that pops into my head at this point is "WTF has my morality got to do with you?".

I could also ask these self-appointed crusaders WTF my sexuality, sex-life, choice of a partner, their gender, and who I choose to marry and what I do with them in the privacy of my bedroom has to do with them?

They meddle in the affairs of others, spreading news nobody needs to hear or cares about - and then act all "persecuted" and offended when their noses get knocked out of joint by the all too predictable slamming of a door.

A Summary Of Straight Privilege In Daily Life

The other day I found online a list of observations made by a class of heterosexual university students in the USA, asked to think about advantages held by heterosexual students over their non-heterosexual counterparts. I think they made a very good effort, and I think doing such an exercise helps to broaden the mind.

It certainly helps to show others how fortunate they are - and highlights the clear advantages straight people have over us - and thereby reveals the inequalities in society we face today. Hopefully this will show people why it is we fight for equal rights - and that we really have a few good reasons to gripe after all.

I thought about it and worked through the original posting, making some additions of my own - and this is what I came up with: