by B. R. GOWANI
A South African lesbian soccer player Milicent Gaika was bound, strangled, and repeatedly raped by Andile Ncgoci in what is termed as “corrective rape” to cure lesbians last year. Aavaz
The feelings of extreme self-righteousness are bound to create a parallel feelings of seeing others as absolutely wrong. This in turn can lead that person (or group) to embark on a mission to right that wrong. The feelings of self-righteousness can be politics based, or religion related, or ideologically inclined, or racially motivated, or gender biased, … At this stage, the only thing needed for a flare up is an excuse, any excuse–a minor or major one–to find a difference in the “others.” It can be color, caste, religion or lack of it, gender, apparels, circumcision or lack of it, length of the beard or lack of beard, sexual orientation, and so on and so forth.
The un-obvious differences people can hide, or practice pleasing things (perhaps unpleasing to society’s custodians) out of societal and religious scrutiny for a long time if it’s restricted to one’s own self, but it becomes difficult when two or more persons are involved. This is the case with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community.
Last April, Milicent Gaika was raped and beaten by a man who said: “I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man, you think you are, but I am going to show you, you are a woman. I am going to make you pregnant. I am going to kill you.’” This was the third time she was raped.
Since 1998, 31 lesbians have been murdered in South Africa.
In Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township, the Sky News was told that a “man roared with laughter as he said lesbians should be ‘whipped.’ ‘There is no mention of lesbians in the [sic] bible,’ he said.”
About 80% of the South Africans follow Christianity. How many of the attackers go after their victims because of the cultural influence, lack of law enforcement, or religious beliefs is not clear. However, like culture, religion plays an important role in many societies, including South Africa.
The Christian scripture, the Bible, doesn’t approve of the same-sex relationship.
“… Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. …” Romans 1:26-27, NIV
It is nasty towards gays and lesbians and accuses them of all sorts of evil things; the punishment prescribed is death.
“… Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32 NIV
According to the Bible, God also destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by sending two of his angels. The men in Sodom wanted to have sex with the angels, but the host Lot intervened at the expense of his daughters:
“… No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” Genesis 19:7-8 NIV
Next morning, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed <1>.
The same-sex relationship is practiced in the animal kingdom <2> and, we humans have evolved from animals and so this is natural for those who are into such relationships.
Although several countries legally permit same-sex relationships, in practice it is a different matter. Most countries do not enforce laws to do justice to the victims of homophobia. Western countries do allow greater freedom to the LGBT community, but even there, the freedom permitted varies.
South Africa is one such country which can be termed as very progressive when it comes to the rights of LGBT community. Back in 1994, it legalized the gay relationship. There was no need to pass any such law regarding lesbians because there was no law prohibiting lesbianism. In December 2006, it became the world’s fifth country to recognize same-sex marriage.
But as usual, the constitutions of many countries may give an impression of Utopialand, the reality differs way too much. South Africa may seem like a progressive country, but its record is not that good.
Ndumie Funda of Luleki Sizwe, an activist and Gaika’s friend, had been desperately trying to engage the government on this issue for a long time. Yesterday, the government promised to take action. Now it is to be seen how long it will take for the government to act?
Like all beautiful dreams, the enslaved and colonized people dream about independence, the South African dream has turned sour too for many of its people.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
<1> San Francisco is the most (percentage wise) LGBT city, 15% of the population, in the US. It sits on San Andreas Fault and is prone to earthquakes. The last big one was in 1906, and another big one is to be expected. The devout will interpret it as God’s wrath on modern day Sodom.
<2> “Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk, biologists at the University of California, Riverside, found that same-sex relationships were a universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, seen in everything from worms to frogs to birds. “It’s clear that same-sex sexual behavior extends far beyond the well-known examples that dominate both the scientific and popular literature: for example bonobos, dolphins, penguins and fruit flies,” said Bailey.”
Almost a third of Laysan albatross couples are female-female pairs that build nests and rear young together. They are more reproductively successful than unpaired females. PHOTO/Eric VanderWerf/Trends in Ecology & Evolution/Guardian