Dying For Love: The Pink Revolution Will Not Be Televised

No man or woman should be crucified for engaging in consensual sexual intercourse with an adult.

Leviticus 18-20 in the Holy Bible says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”. While Prophet Lot warns his people not to “approach men with desire, instead of women” in the Koran. Embedded in certain faith-based dogma and ancient African traditions is mammoth animosity for romantic relationships that are branded as inappropriate same-sex associations. This abhorrent hatred has lethal consequences. Islamic fundamentalist group Al Shabaab executed 20-year-old Isaq Abshirow and 15-year-old Abdirizak Sheikh Ali for homosexual activity in Somalia this January.  Elsewhere – in March, Noor and Ahmad* nearly died when an angry mob stormed their hotel room in Mororo, Kenya and beat them to a pulp.  “I thought I was going to die. I thought for sure this was the end. We were stripped naked and hit by glass, stones, metals, whips just to mention a few,” said Noor, who is a doctor.  “These guys were animals. I could hear them say God hates gay people, we should die, our private parts should be chopped off, we should be thrown into the river and let the crocodiles deal with us, we deserve to rot in hell.”

Homosexual relationships are punishable by death in Brunei, Southern Somalia, Gaza Strip, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Northern Nigeria and Yemen. And while same-sex relations are prohibited in 34 African nations – homosexuality is a constitutionally protected right in South Africa. Still self-proclaimed cultural custodians do not place a rational premium on judicial and moral restraints: there has been a disturbing spate of lesbian killings. When Themba Khumalo and Ntombizodwa Moloi welcomed into their lives a precious bundle of joy 27 years ago – they named her Lerato: a beautiful ode to the wholesomeness of love. The pair wholeheartedly adored and cared for Lerato until a hideously hateful homophobic action broke that parental bond: Lerato was raped and shot dead and buried in brushy lowland in Soweto in a brutal and calculated attack on liberal values.

From lesbian couple Nokuthula and Nonkululeko Mbatha being chased from their neighbourhood for being queer, to police clerk Nosisi Sonjani, who was stabbed and strangled to death, lesbians are loathed and disturbingly denied their basic right to simply live and experience unremarkable social and humanitarian liberties at will.  A hate crime study by OUT LGBT Well-being and the Love Not Hate campaign discovered that 41% of LGBT people in South Africa know someone who has been murdered due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Why should lesbianism morph into one lifelong death sentence for blameless women like Lerato? If Lerato loved women – who loved her in return – how did such harmless mutual fondness impugn mankind and sanction an abominable expression of heinous discrimination and misplaced male power? Which unholy belief in particular lent soulless credence to the unthinkable notion that Lerato had to die because of her sexual orientation?

To be sure: how would a respectable and law-abiding traditional African man (or woman), or indeed a faithful and honourable churchgoer – react if he found himself blessed with a grown up child who is a lesbian? Would he be levelheaded, practical and empathetic enough to embrace her sexual orientation and champion her unalienable birthright to love and be loved - or would he condemn her in the fiercest terms and make her a social outcast? Christianity and Islam claim lesbian relationships are foul manifestations in reality and only divine intervention can obliterate Sodom and Gomorrah-like sinful actions plaguing the earth. However, United States-based researchers attempted to 'cure' homosexuality through shock therapy, hormonal treatment and psychiatric experimentation in the 1970s, but failed. While Ugandan scientists determined that homosexuality is a learned behaviour nonetheless and not an inborn trait after research completed in 2013. Who should the world believe when the science behind the discrimination of same-sex relations is contradictory and not conclusive?

Mankind has embraced innovative science and technology with clinical discernment and moral discrimination: amazing innovations in stem cell research and artificial insemination have not found mainstream admiration amid strong misgivings over ethical and religious considerations: the Roman Catholic Church unambiguously prohibits masturbation and all manner of assisted reproductive know-how. Religion-inclined leaders continually denounce homosexuals for political profit. While President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has said gays and lesbians are ‘worse than pigs’ and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has described gays as ‘disgusting’ - the true prophets of unrestrained decadence and morbid behaviour in Africa - corrupt government officials who have bankrupted society to no end through ungodly immorality and unashamedly stolen immeasurable wealth and smothered generations of societal happiness and economic wealth and opportunity, like former Gambian strongman Yahya Jammeh, live absolutely free from societal abuse and  violence and condemnation in public spaces.

  

It is nigh time to acknowledge that homosexuals are part of society and bring to an end toxic aversions that have built a catastrophic cradle of closet paranoia and determined resistance to real change around long held beliefs and attitudes. No amount of hateful ecclesiastical decrees will make lesbians disappear from the face of the earth. No number of outdated traditional declarations can conceivably asphyxiate a physical and spiritual want and need. Societal attitudes should coalesce around an all-inclusive philosophy that allows space for all to simply live and love. Lesbians are children of all gods as well. Where is the love when society expresses shock and disbelief whenever an openly lesbian woman is murdered in South Africa is killed but disapproval of same-sex unions remains ubiquitously conspicuous all the time? When will the brutal rapes and murders stop and cease to be an unpleasant indictment on social equity in a community laden with progressive values and liberal-minded citizens? For how does one begin to console Themba Khumalo and Ntombizodwa Moloi in such a hate-filled environment?