My Own Take On Things...


My word, my post on gay marriages in South Africa has generated a lot of interest, following some of the less-than-supportive comments left on the BBC website by many people from a variety of African countries.

Here are my thoughts on the subject I threw out into the blogosphere:

First of all, it really frustrates me that there are people out there who would gladly employ violence or torture to gay and transgendered individuals than to allow them to live peaceful, happy lives. Many of these people belong to religious groups that preach love and acceptance of one's fellow human. I am not just referring to the Judeo-Christian set up. I know a girl in Singapore, who belongs to my own Buddhist teaching - Nichiren Buddhism - whose parents would disown her if she revealed she's a lesbian, as would a number of other members. Nichiren Buddhism teaches us about love, acceptance and has no problem with people being gay, yet this girl and others like her, are being ostracised because of their sexuality.

Part of the problem is cultural and the way the LGBT community is regarded in society at large. The other part of the problem, I feel, is that people tend to look past the gay PERSON and see, instead (at least what they conjure up themselves), a SEXUAL act. They see the relationship between same-sex couples as something fuelled exclusively by lust, not love. And therein lies the problem.

When I was about 14 or 15 my parents made me read a book entitled The Gay Nineties. It was one of this Christian gay hating books that went on and on and on about how gay people are promiscuous, dirty and spread disease. How gay people have an "agenda" to undermine the sanctity of Christian family life. How gay people purposefully set out to "corrupt and convert" young straight people and mess with their minds. How all gay people are really paedophiles waiting to happen, which is why gay people should never be allowed to have children. Lesbians want to spoil the delicate virginal flower of a straight girl. Gay men are only after satisfying their appetites.

Read that paragraph again, take out the word "gay", replace it with the word "Jew", the word "Christian" with the word, "Volksland", and you have Hitler's philosophy almost verbatim. And the book was written by a devout Christian. A Christian who would no doubt balk at the word "Nazi" being thrown at him. An American Christian to boot, who would no doubt be proud of America's involvement in whipping some Nazi arse back in WW II.

Sadly, these myths about gay people have prevailed. Yes, there are promiscuous gay people just as there are promiscuous heterosexual people. From where I am standing, Christian Family Life - or any family life for that matter - doesn't seem to need the help of gay people to undermine it. Straight people are doing a great job all on their own.

What I find most laughable is the whole "gay agenda". What gay agenda? Did I miss out on something? Was there a memo that was sent out to every other gay, trans, lesbian and bi person except for me? Apparently, according to my mother, rest her soul, the "Gays want to liberalise the world so that it will pave the way for widespread pervsity and paedophilia. Then the Devils can walk right in and take over because people will have no morals. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah." Yeah. Right. That makes sense.

The funniest explanation I have come across for "the gay agenda" was that gay, lesbian, bi and trans people were all possessed by demons working for the Devil. The Devil's aim is to get as many souls into Hell and away from God as he can, so he uses sex to do that - perverse sex. Hell is pretty damn crowded then, I think, and Heaven must be really lonely with just a handful of Saints and the odd Pope roaming around. Nah... scratch that. You never know with the Catholic clergy.

What is wrong with two consenting adults loving each other? We don't harm anyone, and love is by far a better option than violence, misunderstanding and condemning people to eternal damnation.

Love and let others love. There is no greater gift than love that one human being can give to another. Pack in the prejudice, open hearts and minds and just let everything be...