In Africa, a step backward on human rights

Just when I was beginning to literally become Anti-Christian, Desmond Tutu steps into the gap.

Sigh,......! Why do their have to be real saints amongst men?

Of course, I am taking it too far. But, bite me. That is what I feel.

I woke determined not to come onto the blog. Yes, that was the days resolution. Then I was faced by this stupendous bit of stupidity. This horrible bit of hate, gal, flowing from miles away. I could not but throw in a post, despite being very much behind schedule on too many things. The life of a friend does matter.
[POSTER TEMPORARILY REMOVED. WILL BE REPOSTED]

Seeing someone calling for David's Death, in the name of perverted Christianity was kind of overwhelming. So, I posted. And then, I posted again. And now, I am still posting.
Because hate like that has to be reminded that there is love that can drown away its stench.
Says Desmond Tutu,

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds.

--He continues

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.


It is time to stand up against another wrong

Its time to stand up against another wrong.

Yesterday, I was talking to another guy who was pissed off. We are gay. 'course we know that. But why does our world reach out to lash out at us as if we are not human beings, just because we are gay?
I was the sage level headed person there. Or, at least I hope I was. We go the way of lashing out at all and sundry because we are injured? That is the way of anger. It is not the way to win this fight.

But, that does not mean that we shall give free path to the homophobes, and the haters, and those who will benefit from having us rolled into dust. Tutu again.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

 They demonise us, they do all sorts of irreligious things, all in the name of 'opposing the gay agenda'. NO. We shall not give them a free pass.

No.

We shall not take up weapons to fight. For ours are a bit more subtle, a bit more humane, and, we shall not relinquish our humanity because others demonise us and prance and shame the very face of humanity in the name of their own agendas. Tutu.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

In hiding we are. But, damn, we are bursting out of our closets. In anger at the hate, and tired of the fear. Some more calming words from Tutu-

"But they are sinners," I can hear the preachers and politicians say. "They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished." My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

Calm... Calm..
Some do believe in the rhetoric of hate. In their ideals above others. 'They MUST change' they pontificate, and look us in the eye as they think of ways of pushing in the knife.

Neal Horlsley. Does that person have anything to do with that horrible website that want David Kuria dead? Pink News UK is reporting him arrested, for threats against Elton John. Arrested, and released on bail.

Here is the report on updates in Kenya. At least, the 'church and mosque' leaders didnt get out of their way to riot, in the name of killing their gays. And, the police protected KEMRI.

But, those damn posters calling for the death of Kuria are in some major cities of Kenya.

Posters targeting Kuria have appeared in Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi, Mombasa and Matatus.

All in the name of god. And, now I see where the possible link to the poster in Kiswahili.

----
And, Tutu again;

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

Here again, Ssempa, Langa, Orombi, and others. A Churchman is standing and waving a red rug straight in your faces.

The wave of HATE must stop.

I pray for that also. And, I will use my faculties to make sure that they do stop.
---

What has been missing in this debate? No, in my rant.... Ssempa. He was on NBC nightline. And, people were entertained.
Poor demented Ssempa. I dont know whether to laugh or not. Like Afrogay. Certifiably nuts.
You see a dog wag its tail. [sorry dog lovers..], and you say, 'Stupid you', and it wags its tail faster. Pam House's blend has something on the Porn Freak show Pastor. You got it right. I am ashamed he is Ugandan!

I love the 'Heterosexuals dont eat poop'.... Uhhhhhhh! To such ignorance, why add anything but laughter?

To those who embrace hate, despite all the information to the contrary, why, I say, go ahead. Yours is the right to your opinions. But, when I shake my head and remember that you are human, and, stupid, it is my opinion. Not so?

Ssempa certainly can dupe people. That is, if you want.

And, if you are so duped, why, you are what you are.


Have a good evening.


gug