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ABUSE
Think you've got it bad? Spare a thought for the gay women and
trans men of South Africa who, according to a new Human Rights
Watch survey, live in constant fear. And wouldn't you? The Guardian
reports that black lesbians and trans men there are subject to
various punishments if they reveal their sexual or gender
identities, despite South African queers having substantial legal
rights. Perhaps most sickeningly, the HRW informs us that raping a
lesbian can make a man a township hero, with attackers boasting
publicly of their crimes. In addition to these corrective rapes,
some women are killed. "A number of lesbians have been murdered,
apparently because of their sexuality, in what activists believed
should be classified as "hate crimes". Noxolo Nogwaza, 24, was
stoned and stabbed to death and apparently raped in Kwa-Thema
township in Gauteng earlier this year," writes the Guardian. Bravo
Guardian for shedding light on these atrocious human rights abuses.
It'll be interesting to see if more newspapers follow suit. Don't
hold your breath.
GOOD ADVICE
Seems like even poor old Daily Mail readers are starting to
realise that they probably, maybe, ought to perhaps try and cover
up their anti-gay attitudes, a bit. What a giggle it was, then,
reading a call for advice from the mother of a 15 year old girl
who's taken up with a lesbian lover. This bad lez influence, as one
might expect, comes with a "twice-pierced lip, tattooed neck,
pierced and shaved eyebrow". Outrageous. It's made poor old mumsy a
bit confused. See here: "I find it hard to understand my feelings.
I'm not homophobic but do I want my daughter in a relationship with
a girl?" No: that sounds like homophobia. So, how did the Mail's
agony aunty respond to mumsy's heternormative anxieties? Try not to
laugh girls: "Your daughter may well be going through a bisexual
episode," adding: "or she might indeed have discovered that she
prefers a relationship with her own sex." Wouldn't it have been
just marvellous if she'd gone with a simple "Your daughter likes
muff, get over it"? One day ladies, one day…
AND FINALLY…
Something nice up in Scotland, the long awaited consultation on
civil marriage equality. In the spirit of equality and democracy,
you don't have to be gay to give your tuppence worth. Though we do
have to question why non-gay people should get a say in whether we
can marry. So what if straight people don't like it - what business
is it of theirs? Ooh it's enough to make you go all militant and
set up a separatist commune. Stuff marriage, we can grow our own
vegetables and eschew all of this conservative, out-dated nonsense.
What's that though, you say? Oh, you do want to get
married? Just like straight folks? Oh, OK then. Well, it must be
rather good all this getting wedded up malarkey, because the
government's now teaching the nation's kiddies about its virtues,
or at least the ones that go to some of those swanky new academies.
Excellent. Can't wait to see MPs get the sack when they are
discovered cheating on their spouses. Sanctity of marriage, blah
blah blah.
