CORRECTION AND APOLOGIES TO KING ZWELITHINI: The Zulu King, never called gay relationships “rotten” – Never said what the media said he said!

His Royal Majesty,  King Zwelithini

Zulu King is owed an apology
by Abdul Milazi

¨Gay rights and other rights activists have for the past weeks vilified King Zwelithini for having allegedly called gay relationships “rotten” – now it appears he never did.The media took a stance and condemned the King in centimetres and centimetres of editorial comments. To the media the King was guilty of whatever he was accused of. Interestingly, my colleague Sithembiso Msomi, who had listened to the recording of the speech, cautioned in his weekly column that this nationwide condemnation emanated from what he called “lost in translation”.Now isiZulu is my mother tongue and I was fortunate to listen to a discussion on Ukhozi FM (formerly Radio Zulu in my youth) and they played the parts of the King’s speech that was supposed to have called gay relationships rotten.

To my shock and horror, the King never said what the media said he said, even if translated literally.The King said when you are a man or woman abusing another man or woman, you are rotten. He was talking about abuse and not sexual abuse. He used the word “ukuhlukumeza” which means abuse in a general sense. If he had intended to abuse in a sexual context, he would have used the word “ukunukubeza” which is the IsiZulu word for sexual abuse.What he said was, any person abusing another, whether man versus man or woman versus woman, is rotten...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Abdul Milazi
·  Thanks to Behind the Mask, sidebar
·  Thanks to Times Live,   HERE
·  Thanks to Ukhozi FM

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU: A celebrated figure amongst the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and a staunch support of equality and gay rights.

Anglican Hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

¨Outspoken Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in solidarity has joined the University of Cape Town in creating the first ever local ‘It Gets Better’ campaign video.

The video forms part of the global campaign targeting sexual minorities who experience discrimination in secondary schools and beyond. To view the videos visit HERE

‘It Gets Better’ Cape Town was launched for free viewing on YouTube on Tuesday, October 11 2011. Later this month, part of the collection of videos will be screened at the Out in Africa: South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

The director and producer of the series Andrew Barry, a Master of Philosophy in Education student at UCT said, “I want sexual minorities in Cape Town to know that there are individuals and organisations who will support them.” please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Behind the Mask, sidebar
·  Thanks to Mongezi Mhlongo
·  Thanks to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Anglican Hero
·  Thanks to Andrew Barry

AFRICA--THE ACTIVE MOBILISATION OF HOMOPHOBIC SENTIMENT: ¨The scapegoating of vulnerable minorities is a standard tactic used by political elites to deflect attention away from their own failures and compromises...¨

Anglican African/Ugandan LGBTI Activist, David Kato, RIP

OPINION:

It’s now almost three months since David Kato, a former teacher and a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, was beaten to death in Mukono Town in Uganda. Kato was living in Johannesburg in the salad days of our new democracy and, inspired by the progress made here in recognising the legal right of gay people to an equal humanity, he became a key figure in the Ugandan movement when he returned home in 1998.

Homosexuality was first criminalised in Uganda in the 19th century under the British colonial occupation. That criminalisation of a mode of expressing love and desire that is part of all human communities across space and time was sustained and updated after independence in 1962. As the new century unfolded there were active attempts, often driven by senior politicians and clerics with the support of an increasingly rabid tabloid press, to create a popular moral panic about homosexuality. Public vilification escalated and there were threats, calls for further state repression, censorship of gay people and organisations and a further tightening of a legal regime already so repressive that it carried a sentence of life imprisonment for certain forms of gay sex.

Of course the vilification of gay people by political elites was not unique to Uganda. In Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe’s public hostility stretched back to 1987 but reached a new level of intensity following his verbal attack on gay people at a book fair in Harare in 1996. In Namibia Sam Nujoma began a campaign of demonization in 1995, the former Kenyan dictator Daniel arap Moi launched his first major attack in 1999 and here in South Africa Jacob Zuma made extreme homophobic comments on Heritage Day in 2006. In the same year Olusegun Obasanjo introduced a bill that aimed to further criminalise homosexuality in Nigeria.

The sobering reality is that homosexuality is illegal for men in 29 African countries and for women in 20 African countries. But while it is essential to take this reality seriously, it is equally important to put African homophobia in a global context – homosexuality is illegal in 80 countries across the world and in many countries where there is not a repressive legal regime discrimination and harassment remain rife. In 2009 Ian Banyham, a gay man in his 60s, was beaten to death by two young women in Trafalgar Square in central London. In California the right of same sex couples to marry was affirmed in June 2008 and overturned by a right wing campaign five months later.

But we do need to take the active mobilisation of homophobic sentiment by political leaders in our region seriously. The scapegoating of vulnerable minorities is a standard tactic used by political elites to deflect attention away from their own failures and compromises. And the masculinisation of politics that usually accompanies elite driven homophobia can be used to offer ordinary men some power and status amidst the wreckage of societies that offer no real hope for a decent life to most people...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Richard Pithouse, Rhodes University
·  Thanks to Behind the Mask, Africa
·  Thanks to David Kato, Uganda, RIP

FROM GUANGZHOU CHINA with LOVE: “It doesn’t matter if our children are gay or straight – just like it doesn’t matter if they are left-handed or right-handed”

¨Mama Wu¨ Unlikely Hero for Homosexuals in China



When Wu Youjian’s teenage son told her on a spring night in 1999 that he was gay, Wu did something rarely heard of in China. “I told him, there’s nothing wrong with liking boys and it’s no big deal,” said the 63-year-old retired magazine editor.
Five years later, when her son discussed his sexuality on local television in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, Wu made another groundbreaking decision. She became what state media calls the first Chinese parent to go on television in support of her gay child.

Zheng Yuantao, 30, knows how lucky he is to have such a mother.

“Many of my gay friends are afraid of going home during holidays, because their parents would ask about girlfriends and press them to get married,” he said.

“I grew up in a very open-minded family,” he added. “I didn’t have too much of a struggle about my sexuality.”

Wu now devotes her time and energy to speaking up for gay acceptance by family and society. Her small frame belies her big role in China’s gay community, where she is affectionately called “Mama Wu.”

She taught herself to use a computer three years ago and now writes a blog that has clocked more than 2.2 million hits. She also tweets frequently, has launched a hotline and founded the country’s first PFLAG – Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays – group in her hometown.

“I just followed my instinct and my love for my son,” Wu said.

For other Chinese parents in her situation, however, instinct usually means a deep sense of shame. Many refuse to face the reality and some sever ties with their gay children. Others scheme to break up their children’s relationships. Some may insist on psychiatric treatments, while others may threaten to commit suicide if their children don’t change.

‘Mama Wu’ inspires other Chinese parents of gay children

“In China, we consider carrying on the family line of paramount importance, but we don’t value the happiness of individuals,” said Li Yinhe, a sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Societal pressure cooker

Suicide is high among Chinese homosexuals, Li said, with some surveys saying as many as 30 percent of gay youth attempt to take their lives. That trend mirrors the United States, where a spate of suicides by gay adolescents in recent months has shaken the nation.

Most gay men in China still succumb to social pressure and marry women. It once meant heterosexual marriages, often with children, Li said. Now, gay community activists say a small but growing number of young gay men in big cities are tying the knot with lesbians to both placate families and maintain their lifestyles.

Li conducted China’s first comprehensive surveys on gay men. She published her findings in a 1992 book, which Wu credited for shaping her views on homosexuality.

While society at large has loosened up on homosexuality, Li said, family pressure on gay people remains strong because of deep-rooted Confucian ideas and the government’s one-child policy – making Wu’s words and actions all the more powerful.

“No one would listen to an outsider, but she is not – she is a mother whose only son is gay,” Li said. “Others would wonder, if she can handle it so well, why can’t I.” read it all HERE

· Thanks to Behind the Mask, sidebar
· Thanks to Mama Wu Youjian, China
· Thanks to Zheng Yuantao