Bigot Speak With Forked Tongue

One of the biggest tragedies and obstacles facing gay and transgender people today is feeling too insecure or threatened to come out when we are young - and this is the best time to do so. This is one of the things that will change when education bears fruit one day, but for now the fight for acceptance and equality still rages. That is why we must continue the battle for our civil rights, equality and acceptance - so that others who come after us do not have to live a lie in order to survive - or to face the obstacles which we who are walking this path now have faced.

Breaking News - Brought To You Freshly Broken

The other night East London zoo's famous gay penguins were on the Afrikaans news, having hatched an egg and begun nursing the chick as their own. 

 

I cannot help to wonder what the viewing majority was thinking or saying, but I can guess that in some conservative homes it was probably something like "Gay penguins! The end is nigh!"

Paranoia, Guns, & Christian Fundamentalist Groups In SA

Recently while looking over the postings on the links page of a group affiliated to a larger local anti-gay hate group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianview/links), I found the following items:

"! A great site about Survival Survivalism Homesteading plus Firearms A website with a huge amount of info about wilderness survival, survival Training, survival skills, homesteading, preparedness, survival Navigation, survival First aid, self defense, survival books, survival guides, survivalism, firearms, handguns, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, military manuals, us army manuals, navy manuals, marine manuals, survival books, survival manuals, survivalist, survival Navigation, survival First aid, Army Survival Manual, survival Shelter, survival retreat, Survival priorities, Other survival skills, desert survival, Natural disaster survival, tornadoe survival, Hunting, Bushcraft, underground shelters, Survival knife, storing food, fallout shelters, survivalists, Civil Defense, nuclear war survival, nuclear survival, terrorist attacks survival, Bug Out Bag, BOB, survival Training, sere, patriots, sere manual, military guides, backpacking, camping, combat, disaster, emergency, emergency kits, http://www.survivalebooks.com/

! A very nice Survival plus gun forum called survivalismforum.com They have neat info about how to get concealed weapons licenses permits CCW survival gun info survival retreats how to's wilderness survival wilderness skills survivalist info survivalism info homesteading info gold mining gold prospecting military manuals gun manuals survival manuals and army field manuals army technical manuals."

Surprisingly both items were posted by a woman - and a straight (presumably) Christian fundamentalist! Now I have to ask myself: Is somebody expecting a war?

 

Should we?

Cross This Line

On several occasions supporters of the ACDP, a right wing SA political party which can only be described as religious fundamentalist (if not actually outright totally bonkers) have claimed that the party bears no ill will to gay or trans people (in their words, "homosexuals") in the country - and that we have nothing to fear should they ever come to power.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I wish I could believe them - but there is far too much openly visible hatred and intolerance in the ACDP - which I have seen first hand - and the rest of the world has been able to see even in their press releases addressing the GLBT community or our issues for anyone with two eyes and half a brain to even take that statement seriously!

The facts say otherwise.

What Do We Really Want?

Often there is dissent among people loosely grouped together in the GLBTI community who feel the interests of the whole do not serve their particular needs. In fact some have been downright negative and acerbic in their criticism of the whole community and even gone so far as to vent hatred against fellow members of the community. It is possible they do this because they feel they have been hard done by, but it is also likely that they are just a bunch of sour old farts who see a pink community that is today far more cohesive than it was in the past - and have some sour grapes about it.

Put Your Tranny Wheels On!

Let me start today's post by saying as a passable post-op male to female transsexual that in the war for acceptance, tolerance and civil rights for transgender people, it is our obvious, stereotyped and non-passing transgender sisters out there who are the bravest of us all.

Lead, Fight Or Get Out Of The Way - Pick One!

Please excuse me, but today I am going to rant a little.

Okay, a lot.

A Matter Of Perpective

Can anyone give me a satisfactory explanation why the media calls a man convicted of raping a 4 year old girl a "child rapist" - and a man convicted of raping a 4 year old boy gets labelled a "pedophile", when pedophilia knows no gender, whether referring to either victim or perpetrator? 

 

Is this not either journalistic ignorance - or a blatant attempt to reinforce the right wing image of gay people as "pedophiles"?

No More Lines To Cross

A few "ex-gay" reps have contacted me in the last month or so, using a nice sales pitch, as they like to do - thickly laying on the "Jesus loves you" jam on my perfectly nice slice of "I'm happy as I am" wholewheat toast. I held on to my restraint and presented my responses, presented below as if to one individual - or to the "ex-gay" industry as a whole.

"Change is possible"?

Yes it is - I used to be a Christian - until I saw what being a "Christian" meant - hating and persecuting innocent people in the name of a loving God. Now I'm not a Christian anymore.

Blasphemous Rumors

Whatever would God think if he knew people were saying God loves gay and trans people?

And why not? He made us too, didn't he?

After all, some people say that God hates gay people though nowhere does it actually say so - however it does say in the Christian bible that "For God so loved the world that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him..." I think you get the drift? Even God claims to love everybody (which includes us - and even you) - but it is funny that those who claim to be "true" Christians seem to pick and choose.

As Time Goes By

I had a friend who waited until her wife died before transitioning. Her name was Stephanie Bishop - and when she began transitioning, she was 79 years old.

She lost her friends and family on coming out, even her children and grand children were too conservative and short sighted to accept this - I know she cried many bitter tears over how nasty they were to her. But she was financially independent, moved to another city (where I met her) and got on with her life. 

 

She was delighted by the tendency people had of underestimating her age by 20 years or more and endured many jibes about her "toy-boy" suitors who in many cases were twenty years younger than her. I doubt she was ever lonely again, as most people her age often are.

School Of Thought

It seems in recent times, with gay-hating groups getting trounced on the grounds of attacking homosexuality in terms of "nature versus nurture" and on the subject of Pride events - that they cling to that also disproved mainstay of the anti-gay movement - "homosexuals are pedophiles". Unable to argue the facts to the contrary in these other matters, they then try to show that gay people want to lower the age of consent "because they are after our children" - for the reason that they also push the cliche'd and just as inaccurate belief that gay people become gay through "recruiting".

A Treatise On The Psychic Abilities Of The Common House Fly

No, I am not kidding. I was however kidding that when I wrote this post that my very first line would have to be "No, I am not kidding". Well, maybe. LOL. And yes, I am quite sane. At least that's what the last shrink I saw told me. Hehehe. But then, perhaps I have gone quite wonko and that is just what I wanted him to think?

Now before you dismiss me for a crank or a lunar tick, please hear me out. A few years ago the place where I work was inundated by a plague of flies, coming from the nursery next door which had put a new compost heap close to our side of the boundary. There were literally thousands of flies inside our building for weeks while our managers negotiated with the neighbors to remove the compost heap. In the meantime, sales of bug spray and fly swatters boomed and the silence was punctuated with small regular explosions and occasional swearing.

Death, Even Plausibly Denied, Is Still Death

A while back one of the loudest voices on the right wing so-called Christian Facebook groups in SA made a u-turn and denied calling for the death penalty as punishment for gay people. He said, "I deny personally calling for the death penalty".

And yet he is the one who has on several occasions instituted such "discussions" on several of these forums, and actively promoted and defended them. (The transcripts I have made of these discussions bear me out on this.)

"The death penalty was never my idea" he objects. He even shifts the blame for this atrocious lack of morality by claiming "it is not I who says so, but the bible..." - He is too much a coward to even claim the mantle of responsibility for what he desires to be meted out to innocent people - based simply on his own personal intolerance of gay and transgender people.

What a nice example of a "Christian soldier" you are. Persecution, murder, injustice and genocide - it's all in a days work for you.

Honey, I Shrunk The Bigots

Some bigots have on several occasions on a known anti-gay hate group site claimed that I am persecuting "true" Christians. Note that they clearly distinguish themselves from the vast majority of Christians which include my straight Christian friends and family - who love and accept gay and trans people for who they are - and who support me in my efforts. Why people who claim to love and serve God cannot live like like they claim to is quite beyond reason - and excuse. "...you are just as bias as the rest of us !!" they rant.

Oh, the pot tries to make me look like a kettle so that it can call me black?

Clear Intent

Whenever there are Pride events, there are individuals making claims about the "debauchery" and "immorality" they claim to have seen there. 

 

Some have claimed to have witnessed simulated sex acts, full nudity and some enterprising fibbers have even laid claim that while driving past such events that their small children "were traumatized" by the sight of such a parade or festival. They have used such claims to drum up support for their mounting attempts to ban every gay and trans festival in the country.

The Hardware Store And Other Stories

Okay folks, this article might a little more graphic than my regular posts, but I feel it is a subject that just has to be addressed - and the arguments provided reveal the kind of mindset we face when dealing with fundamentalist bigots.

Some people presented me with an interesting argument a few days ago, using the apparent design and function of human sexual organs as a reason to "justify" heterosexual sex for procreation only and to question "the legitimacy" of homosexuality and same gender relationships. They focused on the "design" of the penis and vagina and the apparent purpose of these organs as reproductive items - and the anus as solely for disposing of bodily waste. 

 

Predictably, they portrayed heterosexual sex as "dignified" while demeaning any other forms of intimacy in (hetero as well as) same gender couples as "deviant", "perverted" and "disgusting".

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

There are many Christians who love and support gay and transgender people. What boggles the mind is that a minority group also calling themselves Christians attacks both gay people and the Christians who love and support them. These are usually the kind of people who claim that gay and trans people cannot be "true" Christians - and the same for the Christians who oppose them.

Which brings to mind a simple question: Does hating gay people make one a "true" Christian? It is astonishing to note that many people feel that it does - even though they often lack the courage to put it in those exact words. In fact, they even claim to act out of "love" for us.

Whatever - in the end that's what it comes down to.

Friendly Fire!

Since homsoexuality and transgender rights are a social and human rights issue, as an advocate for the human rights of the pink community, I would like nothing better than to leave religion out of things altogether. 

 

Oh, if only it were so simple!

When Pancakes Aren't

According to my girlfriend, who is from Finland - the Suomi (Finnish) equivalent for 'pancake' is Pannukakku. Now like me, you might think that means your standard winter evening delicacy with cinnamon sugar or syrup and maybe a dash of lemon. 

I couldn't've been more wrong.

He Who Wounds Me Deepest Is Closest To Me

It is the people that are supposed to love us that hurt us the most when they cannot or will not accept us for who we are. Gay and trans people need to be very strong as people to be able to cope with the rejection they often experience from family.

Every trans person knows that if you are young then it is really the best time to start transitioning because the results are so much better. The body simply is more receptive to hormonal treatments if you start off when you are in your teens or early twenties. There is simply so much less cross-gender damage to undo. The downside of this of course, is that when you are young and still living with your parents, you cannot support yourself - and your welfare is in someone else's hands. If parents are loving and understanding enough to accept the truth about their children, and to help them instead of standing in their way - or worse, rejecting them and subjecting them to emotional abuse and blackmail, then these are very lucky people indeed.

Hate Speech Kills

Homosexuality is secularly legal in Iraq but is condemned by religious leaders. Recently, two gay men were murdered in March, in so-called "honor killings", and four more were found dead in the Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City in April. Both incidents closely followed condemnations of homosexuality by leading local clerics. In Iraq, despite the legal status of homosexuality, Amnesty International reports that twenty five boys and men were killed in Baghdad between March and April because they were gay, or were perceived to be gay.

Freeze - FPI!

Once again, as a human rights activist for the pink community I run the risk of offending people who identify as Christian as well as gay, trans or pro-equality through targeting the matter of religious persecution of gender and sexual diversity and bigotry.

Please rest assured that this is not my intention. My intention is to highlight the actions and words of a minority of fundamentalists who use religion as a weapon against people for their own selfish ends. This is the offense - and not just against loving tolerant Christians, but against everyone who loves democracy, freedom and equality. We trust that Christians who support freedom of thought and the ideals of democracy and equality will take this into account wherever we engage bigotry espoused by those who claim to speak against the pink community for them as well.

Shuffling A Pack Of Lies

On Friday I received notification that a hate crime had taken place in a small town in New York State. Rachel Roo, an 18 year old teen mentor on a popular transgender forum had been brutally murdered.

It was reported that Rachel who had transitioned quite young, had been involved in a car accident in which her mother had lost an arm. Upon testifying in court, the lawyer for the opposing party outed her - apparently her townsfolk did not take kindly to this revelation and she and her family now faced numerous death threats on a daily basis. It was reported that while riding to a nearby store on Friday evening, she disappeared. Her bicycle was found in a dumpster and some hours later she had been found lying at the side of the road. She was reported to have been gang-raped, and so badly assaulted that even her knee caps had been shattered by what was assumed to have been a sledgehammer. Apparently she was supposed to have been left for dead in a shallow grave, but supposedly managed to crawl out and towards the roadway, and collapsed where she was later found. She was taken to ICU where she died in the early hours of the next morning.

 

Like many others around the world, I was incensed on reading this, not to mention upset. Quite honestly I was shattered. I felt that I had lost somebody I had known and it actually brought tears to my eyes. After all, hate crimes like this are the reason I became an activist for gay and trans rights.

Imagine my shock and disappointment upon finding out that it was all a lie.

Infernal Affairs

Many people, including some in the transgender community have been heavily criticizing the Beatty couple for deciding to rear their first child themselves. The latest, second pregnancy in which Mister Beatty has also opted to carry their second child has raised the ire of the transphobic bigots and trans community alike.

Although the negative response is much, much less than the first time round, I cannot help but be saddened by the irony and paradox in all this.

Doctors For ...What?

One would expect on seeing the name "Doctors For Life" that it would be some medical reference, a respectable medical group perhaps - but upon closer inspection of their website and internet trail, you begin to see a trail full of footprints - worrying footprints. A paw-print of anti-abortion activism here, a paw-print of anti-gay activism there - and all the way the menacing sign that the tail of Christian fundamentalism has been dragged through between them.

What Comes Out Makes Us Unclean, Not What Goes In

What does gender have to do with sexual orientation? The questions bigots ask again and again reveal their ignorance about the subject - and the fact that try as you may to explain it to them - even by referring them to expert sites on the matter, they just won't get it - shows contempt for diversity.

They continue to ask sarcastically "what makes gays physically different or is it a spiritual thing? Or is it a mental condition that convinces them that they are not men and women, but rather homosexual men and lesbian woman?" - So after all the long explanations - and even some really short ones - according to them a gay man is not a man? Gay people are "physically different"? LOL.

Here is the short version:

Government Service - African Style

There is only one thing worse than spending three hours sitting in a queue that doesn't move - spending three hours STANDING in a queue that doesn't move. In South Africa's government departments, this is getting beyond a joke.

Vicious Circles And How The Wheel Turns

Gay-haters claim GLBTI are less than one percent of the total population (when worldwide stats seem to place us conservatively at TEN percent (based on estimates of the KNOWN out pink population)) and object to having "their rights" placed secondary to a minority. Funny that a bunch of fags gaining legal equality with them will make them feel less than equal? How does that work again?

Isn't it strange the way some people reason? You can almost taste the irony in the air when people justify their actions by saying it was necessary to kill a hundred in order to save a thousand? Isn't that called rationalization? Particularly when you really have to wonder what it is they are trying to "save" people from? It certainly makes me wonder about the way they think - their motives, reasoning and whether or not they have any conscience at all? After all, how many innocent victims of their hate does it take before it becomes wrong?

For us, one is already too many. For them, a thousand is not enough.

Heterosexism Kills

"...how do I stand up for myself if I will lose my home?"

This is just one example of a young person too terrified to stand up for herself as a young transgender woman - in her own home. 

 

One example of how we let the bigots win by terrorizing us into silence and compliance with their will and their way. 

 

Too many of our young people live in an environment where they have to hide their sexuality or their gender identity from their parents, friends and family. So many of them have such a hard time dealing with it themselves - and to then still have to face the trauma of coming out - at which point they risk facing what has come to be called 'the war at home'. 

 

Some of us are lucky enough to have loving, caring parents who comfort, accept and nurture us - but not so many of us are that fortunate.

A Million Drums

The ACDP is making a lot of noise consolidating and enlarging it's power base, which was all but decimated in the April 22 elections. The DA has thankfully broken the tenuous alliance they had formed with them in order to form an opposition to the ANC in the Western Cape province some years before, and now they are well and truly out of power and on their own. 

Far from giving up on the fight to take power, institute a theocracy and turn the gay community in South Africa into criminals and fugitives as they were before 1994 - they are now trying to drum up support for their daunting climb from the dark and stifling basement they hatch their schemes in, to the dizzy heights of the steps of Parliament in 2014. At least, that is what they are aiming at.

Rotten Fruit

Since the "ex-gay" industry recently lost one of its most famous cornerstones - a book written thirty years ago called "Homosexuality in Perspective", in which the founding principles of this multi-million dollar hate-industry were laid out using "case studies" - now revealed in a new book called "Masters of Sex" to have been wholly fictitious and falsified, fundamentalist gay-haters are now changing their rhetoric to suit circumstances.

Christian Is As Christian Does

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 the issue of evidence and proof for a year, and for another year you 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 many of us 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?

Expecting Someone Smaller?

Many times I have engaged in debates with bigots, particularly Christian fundamentalists. Often, when cornered and outgunned by the weight of evidence and material presented to them - which they have of course denied - they resort to personal attacks and character assassination. Sometimes they will call efforts in defense of their victims "trashing other people's beliefs" - I find that rather ironic considering all the vicious things said about gay and trans people - and me - that have come out of their mouths, um - finger tips.

Out, Damned Spot!

Here in SA our Pride events are sponsored by the community, businesses and not councils or government. This means that while their funding is independent (and often hard to come by) all they require is the co-operation of the local authorities and that at least their financial eggs are not all in one basket, and the cancellation of one sponsor will usually not mean disaster.

Municipalities often just show us support through granting of permits, assistance with advertising or press releases and statements and so on. Mostly they realize how much revenue and tourism these events bring into their towns - one such instance saw a campaign by religious radicals to ban such an event thwarted, mainly due to the fondness of the residents for the festival - and also their fondness for the pink money it brings in - which exceeds their December holiday takings.

What Happened To IDAHO DAY In SA?

This year IDAHO day was celebrated widely by pink communities around the world, and on the eve of the 2009 IDAHO day, and France became the first country in the world to officially remove transgender issues from its list of mental illnesses, as homosexuality was globally in 1973. (This means that I am wonko everywhere in the world - except France. Did I mention I like France?) 

Sadly I noted nothing of the sort here in South Africa. No announcements, events, full page ads, radio interviews... nothing at all. Perhaps the bigger advocacy organizations here were too wrapped up in campaigning against racism or xenophobia? All jokes aside, I feel it is necessary in South Africa to mark such events - because believe it or not - we are not immune - nor are we untouched by the hand of homo and trans phobia.

True = False

There are many loving Christians out there who happen to love and befriend gay and trans people and support and accept them without seeing any kind of conflict of interests in this. They love God and they love their fellow human beings as they believe their God taught them to. These are people in whom one can believe you can see the nature of a loving father God shining through.

Considering this, isn't it somewhat ironic that there are people who claim to worship the same deity, read the same holy books and also claim to be Christians - who paradoxically hate gay people and try their level best to destroy them in the name of this same God? In the same breath many of these people also claim that others who show love and tolerance to gay people - or stand against their acts of hatred against them - cannot be "true" Christians... I find this rather an interesting proposal.

Don't you?

Get Your Own Life - This One's Mine!

It seems that there many instances where various versions of the bible - which is essentially no more than a compilation (incomplete, I might add) of other ancient "books" or codices - which have suffered the incompetence of numerous translation efforts, deliberate changes and omissions - and conspiracies by the Roman Catholic Church to conceal and even promote such inaccuracies. 

Most important of all are the efforts of modern American bible "authorities" which control the worldwide selection, publication and distribution of bible versions today resist the correction of such omissions, changes and other errors as "changing the word of God" - as if the flawed alterations in general use today are really the originals! It seems pretty clear to me that this is as a result of their desire to keep women - and gay and trans people oppressed as the "other" in society. Hmm. I wonder why? The almighty patriarchy hard at work, protecting its own selfish interests? 

Placing Blame

Leading bigots and gay-haters in SA are of the informed opinion that SA's gay movement do not do what the gay movement in the USA does yet - asserting that America's movement is 40 years ahead of us, but that we are learning and catching up.

They may have something there. In SA our leading groups are often silent except to bicker among themselves and try to prevent newer groups from stealing their limelight while they themselves are doing nothing to benefit the pink community. While you may see similar destructive behavior in the UK of late, you certainly do not see this idiocy in the USA. And lastly to disagree with our learned friends, SA has a growing online activist community which is part of the rapidly growing "Stonewall 2.0" movement which sprung into existence in response to the debacle in the USA - now called "Proposition HATE".

Milk Review

Tuesday night I went to watch the new movie "MILK" at Uptown theaters in Port Elizabeth, accompanied by my girlfriend Tuuli and my mom. Although we had already seen this movie on a pc, we decided to see it on the big screen as they say, and to support Uptown for supporting us. 

Uptown is the ONLY theater in Port Elizabeth even showing Milk. When we approached Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor about the matter, it was before we were aware of the Uptown feature. Needless to say, Nu Metro made some half-hearted excuse about there not being a demand for it, while Ster Kinekor never bothered to reply.

What It's All About

It's been a hectic day. Really hectic. Thought I was going to spend the day in my jammies and slippers watching TV or something, instead I spent yet another day racing around town to attend meetings and other sundry sideshows. Anyways, got another meeting tonight at 5:30 and I am already exhausted. And I'm supposed to be on leave so I can recover from my really hectic work schedule which seems to be following me relentlessly and not taking no for an answer.

At least next week I will be out of town for my second week of leave - in a place where there is no internet signal. I'm even thinking of leaving my phone off! Sounds more like heaven every time I think of it.

The Upside Of Down

Many anti-gay persecutors have the opinion that most scientific and medical evidence that proves gay and trans people are born as naturally as heterosexuals, is based on someone's opinion and not "hard-core facts". 

 

"Hard-core facts"? Do they mean like the bible? Or the rantings of people who foam at the mouth while inciting hatred against an inoffensive and un-threatening portion of society? Some "facts". 

 

At least scientists can show actual demonstrable evidence to substantiate their facts.

They back-pedal from the accusations that they hate gay and trans people - arguing that they "love gay people", but "hate their sin" and try to show that pink community are "being hated in the wrong way" - how is there ever a "right" way to hate people?  

 

HATE is never right. 

 

And I have yet to understand the difference between hating somebody and hating somebody for what he or she is.

Body Count

Some nice people who insist that they don't hate gay people, but rather that they "love gay people enough to point out their faults" at the same time paradoxically insist that the disputable OT biblical law that states gay people should be murdered for "defying god" in being born gay, should be made part of our countries judicial system. This is part of what is known these days as the Dominionist or Reconstructionist movement - or "Kingdom Now Theology". Virtually every religious grouping which uses the word "transformation" this or that in their literature is part of this movement today. They are increasingly gaining power, increasingly involving themselves in politics, their sights set firmly on putting their religious dogma in the driving seat of government, no matter what anybody else thinks or feels about it.

The No-man's-land Of Spiritual Warfare

I object to liars tarnishing the name of gay people, reducing them to "deviants who choose to sin" and who "can change" - in turn helping to make life even harder for them.

I assure you, gay-hating pulpit-pilots could never be as sad as I am when I see inequity and deceit peddled as truth and used to destroy the lives of innocent people because of idiotic superstitions and childish spite. People who believe this rubbish should be ashamed - and as a former Christian I am ashamed of and for them.

Hate Is Not A Religion

It is not a new thing in the world for people to call and campaign for the death penalty for gay people 'as punishment' for being gay, although it certainly is fairly new on the political scene in South Africa.

 

Previously, cooler heads had always prevailed, and the notion of state-sanctioned murder was generally supported for capital crimes, like murder - and occasionally, wished upon rapists and the like. However, recently, there's been an emerging trend where religious extremists have grown more vocal about their hatred for 'the other' and began to vocalize their desire for those whom they despise to be put to death for simply being born gay or transgender.

This is a disturbing new trend among Christians, even those fanatical fundamentalists or literalists who for years restricted their efforts to pressing religious and social institutions and pressurizing government into making life as difficult for anyone who dared to deviate from the cisgender norms they held so dear. 

 

Their hatred for those who differ from themselves overflows and overrules common sense, logic and compassion for fellow human beings, and I can only attribute its arrival here to the heavy influence of the American religious right groupings who have overrun the US Republican Party, using the gay community as a scapegoat and rallying point to try and institute a theocracy in that country over the past 8 years - and certainly the dangers of mixing religion with politics can be seen in this. For many years, right wing fundamentalist "missionaries" have been coming to SA and assisting these groups under the guise of "church planting". The same has happened in other African countries, such as Uganda - and, well, we can see the culmination of those efforts for what they've delivered - in the form of the "Kill the Gays Bill".

To Do List 2009

The Christian fundamentalist hate groups and political parties got their asses kicked at the polls in this year, so after that it seems pretty much smooth sailing for the short term. 

 

However, since things are now looking somewhat brighter than they did up to the 22nd of April, I have made a short list of things I would to do or see in the near future. Call it a wish list if you like, but oh well, here it is:

Gay Marriage Killed The Dinosaurs!

I was most interested to hear that a group of Muslims had challenged the marriage laws of SA on the grounds that their Muslim marriages (or more to the point, divorces) were not legally recognized. 

 

More power to them, but how can this be? Easily, as it turns out. After all, this is South Africa, where a lot of inequalities existed - and still exist to this very day.

 

It seems that (gender issues aside) only civil unions and Christian marriages are legally recognized, making all other forms of marriage illegitimate.

What a surprise.

Lessons Learned - Or Not

The yearly Sexpo in Cape Town has once again drawn the ire of fundamentalist Christians in the city, notably one little group calling itself the "Christian Action Network" (CAN), whose spokesman Taryn Hodgson, once again laid into the organizers and those supporting the Sexpo with all the might and thunder she could muster.

Some may remember this group as the one whose leader (Peter Hammond) along with another member of this group, co-authored a hate-filled book called 'the Pink Agenda' - which was no more than a piece of homophobic propaganda filled with hysterical fearmongering and junk-science not worth the paper it was printed on, intended to incite hatred against the pink community in SA. 

 

Back in 2001 this made national headlines - but more recently this group has been reduced to taking on other issues vital to the South African Christian extremist, issues of such import as abortion, and "blasphemy" in the media, and people watching (boring) soft porn on late night TV in the privacy of their own homes - and who can forget their main grudge, that their god has been left out of the Constitution and consequently, the government. 

Boo hoo.

"Transformation" = Religious Fascism

I respect others beliefs and the right of others to believe what they choose to believe - which is precisely why I favor a secular state system over any form of religious government. 

 

Religion is and should be a private matter for the individual.  

 

Trouble is, Christianity doesn't as a whole like to stay private - its supporters - particularly the fundamentalists - seek to "transform" the world around them into little Christian clones of themselves - and many would favor conquest and violence as the means to satisfy that end. (Take the Spanish conquest of South America, or the Crusades as examples.) 

On the whole, the concept is rather frightening - like the Borg in Star Trek whose slogan seems to be "Resistance is futile" and whose life aim seems to be the assimilation of all other groups, religions and cultures - or their annihilation.

A Tough Consititution

The SA Constitution might not mix religion with politics - but it is far more Christ-like than the one many groups claiming to be "Christian" would give us!

Below is a comment posted on a discussion forum by a man who has actively supported religious fundamentalist right wing political parties and their para-religious groups in South Africa who have made a habit of campaigning against the human rights and equality of the gay and trans community.

"I cannot see any other option for South Africa but a Righteous Republic. The term democratic which by implication is mob rule has no place in Christian politics, personally I would prefer a Theocracy, but in as much as man is not perfect a Righteous Republic would suffice. As a Christian who takes the Bible literally, understanding that GOD will curse our nation if it legislates against His Law, yet bless our nation if we obey His commandments I would support a Righteous Republic and especially a Christian Republican Party".

Ironically, the same person quoted above has on several occasions stated that he wants the death penalty to be re-instituted - and that he, like others, views it as a "Christian duty" for the state to execute gay people for the "crime" of being gay.

 

I'm deadly serious about this - I've seen many comments of this sort, and they're not kidding. No sir, no shit.

 

This is a trend disturbingly on the increase among radical gay-hating people in SA, who are usually fanatical fundamentalists or literalists ascribing to one of several religions, typically Abrahamic.