Capetown Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu is an amazing person who stands for what is good in the world. Here is an excerpt from an op-ed he penned in today’s Washington Post:
Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity — or because of their sexual orientation….It is time to stand up against another wrong. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family….Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.
These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.
It is wonderful to hear these words. They are a great contrast to bloodthirsty hate preachers like Uganda’s Martin Ssempa, who is using Christianity as a cover to commit potential mass murder. We could use more inclusive, inspiring voices like Tutu’s in Africa and throughout the world.
We gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ugandan citizens, represented by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), unite with the AIDS service providers, spiritual mentors, counsellors, and other human rights defenders to call for the rejection of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009.
This bill violates the Ugandan Constitution, rights and responsibilities that promise protection and freedoms granted to all Ugandans. It further violates The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It constitutes a state of emergency for LGBT Ugandans and must be rejected in its entirety.
We call on MP Bahati to immediately and fully rescind the odious Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This bill is devoid of the principles of love, tolerance, compassion, and mercy that Christianity embodies.
We are NOT paedophiles and neither do we recruit anyone. We take offence at the suggestion. We are citizens, children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of Uganda.
We profoundly condemn the harm and exploitation of children, in any manner and for any reason, especially the exposure to all forms of pornography, homosexual or heterosexual by local religious types! These are our children too.
We condemn the increased hate/ homophobia by religious extremists, state and non-state actors in country. This bill has propelled violent attacks and increased risk of torture, blackmail, and murder of homosexual people.
We call upon the Ugandan Parliament to decriminalize human sexuality between consenting adults. Every reputable medical and psychological institution in the world states that homosexuality is naturally occurring, not deviant or a threat of any kind.
We therefore recommend that the legislation be rejected in its entirety.
Contact information:
Tel: +256 312 294 859
Email: info@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) is a network of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organizations in Uganda.
Fearing a renewed uproar over tonight’s ABC News investigation of Exodus International’s role in Uganda’s kill-the-gays legislation, Exodus President Alan Chambers has informally told conservative Christian pundit Warren Throckmorton:
I am disappointed that Exodus won’t be heard in this piece. Sadly, Don Schmierer declined the interview and our request to go on record with ABC was denied. I would have loved nothing better than to share our disdain for this bill and apologize for going anywhere near such a horrible conference.
It is neither sad nor surprising that Schmierer and the rest of the Exodus board declined to talk: Schmierer had already discredited himself, on Exodus’ own blog.
In December 2009, in an Exodus blog guest article, Schmierer admitted that, since 2002, he had been working closely with antigay evangelicals in Uganda to mobilize antigay political activity.
And yet, Schmierer claims that, over the course of seven years, he was somehow oblivious to evangelical colleagues’ internationally publicized lynch mobs which were killing gay Ugandans and destroying the reputations of rival pastors with false character attacks.
Such a ridiculous claim of ignorance would be torn to shreds by ABC and exposed as a lie — which it is. Hence, Schmierer’s refusal to talk, and Chambers’ failure to follow through with his offer to express disdain or apologize, regardless of whether ABC is listening. (Read More)
In 2008 a journalist working for South Africa’s Sunday Sun wrote an article which insulted gay people and women, encouraged conservatives to remove the rights of gay people from the SA Constitution, and also thumbed his nose at the Human Rights Commission by saying that he would refuse to apologize. More than two years later, it seems Jon Qwelane has been proved right.
Not only has it taken two years for this man to be charged for his offensive publications, but now that the Human Rights Commission has finally managed to get the process to the point where it can go to court, Mr Qwelane suddenly cannot be traced to be served with notice that he should appear in court – effectively holding up the whole process.
Where, I wonder, is Mr Qwelane? Perhaps the tracers diligently searching for him have been asking in the wrong places. Have they asked the Government?
Government should know – after all, they have just appointed this homophobe to the position of SA Ambassador to Uganda – that country now infamous for pushing a new law which will see Uganda’s GLBTI population murdered – sorry, “executed” for the horrible immoral “crime” of being born under one of those letters which Ugandans ignorantly bundle together under the global description – gay. But then, maybe they don’t – after all, if you consider the state of our government, you have to wonder if the left hand knows whose back it is scratching, or the right foor whose as- well, you get the idea.
Our government clearly is unaware that they have appointed Mr Qwelane, a man so full of racist remarks, scorn for women’s equality and anti-Semitic and anti-gay hatred, to a position where he will do a great deal of harm to the situation in Uganda as Ambassador for South Africa.
Our government is somehow completly unaware that Uganda has been pushing an anti-human rights agenda for the past decade, by passing laws which turn people into criminals simply for the crime of existing – and of course, the new law – dubbed the Ugandan Genocide Bill – is a complete surprise to them – or at least, will be if they ever admit to its existence. This ignorance is puzzling considering that South Africa has been assisting Uganda in an official capacity for years in terms of infrastructure development, business investment and hey – we even supply electricity to them. And of course, nobodies like us have been sending letters, emails, faxes, pertions, phone calls to our wonderful government to complain about their persistent silence on the matter.
They have yet to utter one single word on the issue, even to acknowledge receipt of any correspondence or dialog on the issue.
Of course, how can you have plausible deniability if you admit to knowing something you later want to claim you didn’t know about? I can see the President in a few years making an announcement on the state sanctioned genocide of GLBTI people in Uganda – which it clearly knew nothing about and was just as shocked and horrified as the rest of the world to learn about. Think it will fly? Or do I hear the sound of something crashing and burning?
Our government is placing policy and diplomacy with a murderous state above the value of human life. It is ignoring the will and voices of its own people. It is placing convenience above its own increasingly doubtful claims of “morality”. And it is placing silent complicity above speaking out and saving lives – even the lives of people it doesn’t approve of.
The answer is simple. If they cannot hear us, shout louder.
SAN FRANCISCO — Three Hayward cousins are facing hate crime charges after a man was shot in the face with a BB gun because the attackers believed he was gay, according to San Francisco authorities.
A video of the assault and other similar crimes was recorded by the attackers and is being held as evidence, assistant district attorney Brian Buckelew said.
Mohammad Habibzada, 24, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, and Sayed Bassam, 21, were arrested about 15 minutes after the shooting, when police spotted a car in the area that matched a description given by the victim. The suspects have addresses in Hayward.
Because it was committed by guys with Muslim names. You have to take heart, gays, because in the daily wingnut Two Minutes Hate, Muslims appear FAR more often than gays.
Do they know if this was specifically motivated by religious animus? Not yet. But they do know enough that
All three suspects are facing three felony counts and one misdemeanor. They include assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and attempted mayhem.
Okay, so they know it was motivated by anti-gay animus. First, let’s enter the mind of the wingnuts reacting to this.* In their widdle world, liberals absolutely LOVE conservative Muslims. They arrive at this conclusion because They Are Not All That Bright, and can’t compute the idea that liberals might detest the values of radical anti-everything Muslims and simultaneously** have an issue with insdiscriminately bombing the hell out of anything we please in that part of the world. They can’t grasp the idea that “not bombing” does not equal “surrender,” because wingnuts only understand force when it allows them to feel like their penises are being vicariously represented in the fight.
Hmm. “Three cousins from Hayward,” huh? Mormons opposed to gay marriage? Knuckledragging rednecks insecure about their own sexuality? But no. Instead, a little touch of old Amsterdam comes to the city by the bay.
The title of his post? ”Celebrate Diversity.” He’s absolutely gleeful that this was done by the big bad brown people from the “turrist” part of the world. It would be a valid point if we didn’t have such a long history of hate crimes against gays perpetrated by all manner of Christian/Christian-influenced terrorist born and bred right here in the good old US of A.*** But see, again, this is the weirdness of being in a wingnut brain, because people like Mark Steyn think that liberals want nothing more than to roll out the red carpet for radical Muslims.
Next up is Daniel Blatt from GayWingnut,**** who has also convinced himself that mean liberal gays don’t seem to mind when radical Muslims assault/kill gays:
Now, I certainly wouldn’t go as far as her, but she raises an interesting issue: will gay groups cover this with the same degree of frenzied fervor they would if the three men were evangelical Christians?
Um. Wow. First of all, “Jenny” is expressing a sentiment that has nothing to do with gay people, but everything to do with racism against the millions of peaceful, nice Muslims in the world, some of whom emigrate from their home countries to the United States. As I’ve said before, gay wingnuttia really has nothing to do with gay rights or equality, but rather is about taking weak Republican talking points and inserting the word “gay” into them, a la “We should listen to Bill Kristol and pre-emptively bomb all Muslim countries to death because, um, they’re mean to gays?” or “We should continue to pass irresponsible tax cuts and run the US based on discredited and disproven Laffer economics, because, um, gays with money likey the tax cut?” or “We love the anti-gay Sarah Palin, because, hellloooooo, DIVAAAAAAA!!!!!”
Right. Anyway. But secondly, Blatt is engaging in the same kind of barely-contained glee as Mark Steyn is. For gay wingnuts, Republicans and Evangelicals are the chosen people, even if said chosen people hate their guts, and all Muslims are the enemy. And they participate in the same Two Minutes Hate as straight wingnuts, so they’re essentially willing to throw themselves prostrate before people who don’t believe in their inherent dignity, because hey, at least they hate Muslims more!
But here’s the thing that completely tears their strange views about liberals to shreds, as explained by Roger Ailes (no, not the evil one):
The biggest problem Steyn has (apart from his poodle toupee) is that the men have been arrested and charged, and face enhanced punishment for committing hate crimes regardless of their religion. So [Steyn] can’t pretend that our godless liberal enclaves are under the thrall of Sharia law. If convicted, the three gentleman will recieve serious punishment, and that punishment will be enhanced because of their bigotry. And Steyn will remain free to spew his bigotry, as long as he doesn’t act on it.
The system works.
Exactly. You see, the reason gays in the West focus a lot more on anti-gay violence perpetrated by Christian rednecks is that most of the anti-gay violence in the West is perpetrated by Christians of some sort. I should point out here that arguably the most violent anti-gay sub-population in the United States are Slavic Evangelicals, who live largely just over the mountain from San Francisco in Sacramento. I wonder if Dan Blatt and Mark Steyn will go just as crazy next time one from that population murders/assaults a gay person! (Actually, no, I don’t care.)
Meanwhile, on the international front, we’ve been spending a lot of time on the anti-gay violence perpetrated by Christians in Uganda, because that’s something we can do something about. I completely grant that the hatred and violence LGBT people are subjected to in Islamic countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia is awful, but at the same time, I also know that supporting Bill Kristol’s or Daniel Pipes’ latest wet dreams about bombing the holy hell out of Islamic countries in the name of protecting their gays is beyond stupid. For one thing, their foreign policy ideas are a complete failure on all fronts. But if we’re going to talk about the plight of gays, let’s talk about the fact that the religious government that has taken root in Iraq since neoconservative wingnuts cheerled us into war with that country in the name of showing them how big our dicks are, is extremely anti-gay! Violence against gay people in Iraq has only gone up since we deposed Saddam Hussein. Hussein was a bad guy, obviously, but because he was secular, there are certain things he didn’t put up with. Women had it better under his rule, and so did gays.
The common thread here is that extremist religion is the prime motivator of anti-gay animus and violence, and if we had a Christian theocracy like many in the US dream of, we’d have a hell of a lot more anti-gay violence on our plates.
So yes, wingnuts, it’s outrageous that this happened, and the proper authorities are dealing with it. But try to conceal your pants-wetting glee over the fact that Muslims did it, because the point you’re trying to score is one that doesn’t exist outside the echo chambers of your minds.
*Canary recommended.
**Two thoughts, one brain, same time?!?!
***Oh look, radicalized conservative Jews have done stuff like this too! I guess the problem is religously-motivated hatred of ALL kinds?
****I would call it “Intellectual Chernobyl” but that’s already taken.
In an obscene turn of events reserved for pasquinade the dear Minister of Arts and Culture (residing in the Ministry of Intolerance and Prejudice), Lulu Xingwana, stormed out of an art exhibition held on Constitution Hill. The dear Minister was so indignant that she called the artworks “… immoral, offensive and going against nation-building.”
Now that’s pretty rich coming from an obvious plebeian only in official title by virtue of bestowment by the Moral Compass of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and probably owning a matching flashy car (probably a BMW 7 series as is precept and precedent) holding the sceptre over Arts and Culture.
“While viewing the artwork, Xingwana appeared most upset by the work of Muholi and Mntambo, which deals with intimacy between women.”
The artworks which scarred our dear Minister for life and caused all the brouhaha that the she couldn’t even read her speech was “… a series of photographs by prominent artist and lesbian activist Zanele Muholi, of naked, black women embracing each other, Xingwana slammed the work as “pornographic”, spoke to her aides, and left in a huff. Her personal assistant read out her speech.”
Yes indeed, the pious Minister cannot stand visually stunning and tasteful photographs of women which in fact does not even show societal taboos such as certain parts of breasts and “below the belt areas”. Those were all cleverly and indeed artistically covered. The Minister thinks it amounts to pornography. Now I wonder if the porn label only relates to the assumed gay imagery…
It is especially ironic and terribly regressive that this happened in very close proximity to the much esteemed South African Constitutional Court, hence why the precinct is known as Constitution Hill. This is the same Constitutional Court which scrapped old discriminatory statutes and effectively ordered Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage otherwise the old Marriage Act would have been amended by means of their pronouncement to be non-discriminatory. This same Court gives ultimatums to Government yet the Minister of Arts and Culture provides a nice symbolic desecration in return and tramples all over the Bill of Rights with her tantrum. Uncannily this Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and provides freedom of speech as long as it doesn’t grossly violate another group’s rights.
The Minister was sweet enough to throw in the What-About-The-Children card as some kind of substantiation for her theatrics. This is quite odd when one considers that none of the imagery amounts to pornography. The artist says to the Times of South Africa in rebuttal that “…children need to know about these things. A lot of people who have no understanding of sexual orientation, people are suffering in silence…”
A constitutionally protected minority apparently has to be swept under the rug and children should preferably be protected from this constitutionally protected minority. A plethora of comments on articles covering this national disaster make complete fun of the supposed moral superiority of the new nationalists. The more things change the more they stay the same indeed – from one bunch of nationalists to another. Is anyone else seeing the pattern here?
This hideous event caught some attention beyond the South African borders as well when the Guardian in the UK reported on it. The Guardian states the delineating statement which should have tipped off Her Piousness:
In the exhibition’s catalogue, Muholi’s artwork is described as being “without precedent in South Africa, where there are very few instances of black women openly portraying female same-sex practices.”
The Minister however strongly denies it was the implied sexual orientation which caused all the ire as the Mail & Guardian reports that “[The Minister’s personal assistant] denied that the minister objected to the fact that the women were lesbians. ‘I don’t think it’s based on sexual orientation. It’s more to do with the fact they’re not wearing clothes and engaging in what looks like sexual acts. The minister stands by what she did.’”
The Minister should have expected very substantial fallout. But then again maybe this is the direction the regime under Jacob Zuma is going. Just before the April 2009 general elections Mr Zuma played lay preacher at the Rhema Bible Church which is spearheaded by former World Iron Man wannabe Ray McCauley. Not long afterwards we learnt that Jacob Zuma in distinct demagogue fashion placed same-sex marriage rights and abortion on auction for the loudest sycophant when the earth-shattering news broke as elaborated on by the Mail & Guardian in Zuma’s new God squad wants liberal laws to go.
In February 2010 we learnt of the looming national debate on morality as envisaged by none other than Jacob Zuma. This came literally days after the discovery of the president’s umpteenth child and lover (the latest one being illegitimate). Some now rightfully wonders what practice what you preach means in modern day South Africa.
Annelie Lotriet of the official opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), released a very critical statement on Xingwana’s hissy fit calling the Minister a bigot with no capacity to uphold the Constitution and suggests that Xingwana should rather tender her resignation. The statement by the DA also states the history of Jacob Zuma’s bigoted utterances: “same sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God. When I was growing up, ‘ungqingili’ [homosexuals in isiZulu] could not stand in front of me, I would knock him out.” Lotriet also reminds the reader that Jacob Zuma recently appointed the rabidly, anti-gay Jon Qwelane as ambassador to Uganda.
The DA further raises some concerns:
It would appear that, below the surface bigotry and prejudice run deep in the ANC. It is disgraceful.
If this government is serious about creating a genuine democracy built on a foundation of human rights, it needs to act against the kind of prejudice the Minister espouses. One would hope the Minister has enough perspective to sanction herself and resign, should her pride prevent her from doing so, President Jacob Zuma needs to take action.
Lastly it would only be befitting to get the opinion of a renowned South African artist and professor of fine arts, Penny Siopis.
“The fact is, as a minister she is a representative of our Constitution. It does not matter if she has a personal distaste for what she sees.”
If this kind of atavistic behaviour is a sign of things to come and some indication of the Zeitgeist within the ANC, I see a very gloomy future for the LGBTIQ community in South Africa. One can only hope that the Constitution is protected from the nationalists’ prejudice and conservativism. Bigotry knows no boundaries and symbolic gestures are often a taste of things to come.
The Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper is an instrument of that nation’s ruling family, and it is periodically used by corrupt Uganda evangelicals — among them, Martin Ssempa — to mobilize vigilantes to violently attack and kill dissident pastors and human-rights advocates as well as LGBT people. Truth Wins Out has previously reported on Red Pepper, and Box Turtle Bulletin has substantial additional detail.
In new video, Frank Mugisha of Sexual Minorities Uganda confirms that U.S. ex-gay activists met with members of the Uganda Parliament and claimed that international homosexuals were out to “recruit” Ugandan children.
Capetown Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu is an amazing person who stands for what is good in the world. Here is an excerpt from an op-ed he penned in today’s Washington Post:
Fearing a renewed uproar over tonight’s 
