It is unfathomable that gay people are being killed in the first country in the world to have enshrined their freedom in its constitution
gay rights
Sexual orientation discrimination is never just that
In the late nineties, Prof Francisco Valdes from the California Western School of Law, set out to address what he saw as a dangerous loophole in American anti-discrimination law. The loophole existed in the context of sexual discrimination laws. At the time, discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender was outlawed, but, as a […]
Better organisation would make Fees Must Fall more successful
There are so many phenomenal stories about our political freedom that are less told. The story of Ruth First is such a story. First was a white women who forwent personal privilege and devoted her life to the anti-apartheid struggle. She was eventually killed by the apartheid government in 1982. Yesterday, I attended an event […]
Je suis Orlando, then je suis KwaThema
If indeed we are one with the victims of the Orlando shooting, then surely we ought to be one with the victims of various violations and victimisation in our own communities. Or not? Since Sunday I have tried to get a sense of what this attack was about. Was it about a terrorist act, or […]
Dear people with stupid gay questions
Over the holiest weekends of the year (holy for the four days of rest) I encountered questions that left me tired. From the age of about five or six I have been subject to such questions. Sometimes, they came from friends, sometimes from adults and sometimes these questions were not questions, they were rhetorical accusations […]
Beyond 2015: Setting an inclusive and pro-LGBTIQA development agenda
I recently read an interesting article titled “Why gay rights is a development issue in Africa, and aid agencies should speak up” by Hannah Stoddart. Stoddart, concerned with the very high rise in state-sanctioned homophobia in Africa, shows how homosexuality in some African countries is often accompanied by a life sentence or up to 20 […]
Anti-gay attacks on the rise in Swaziland
By Jabu Pereira Kaylo Glover a young lesbian from Nhlangano, Swaziland, stepped into a bar with her friends on the early hours of Sunday morning. She was killed by an enraged man who did not want to be in the presence of lesbians. He left the bar, fetched an axe from his car, returned and […]
How is one to be gay, black and free?
Simon Nkoli once said “In South Africa, I am oppressed because I am a black man and I am oppressed because I am gay. So when I fight for my freedom I must fight against both oppressions”. This is the dichotomy that many black gay men find themselves in. What comes first, what is more […]
In 76 countries, love is still a crime
Where are the gay couples in Valentine’s Day advertising? February 14 is another reminder that even the most intimate aspects of our lives continue to be controlled by enduring social, religious and political forces that are reticent to fully embrace sexual and gender diversity. While most criticism is against the commercialisation of love this time […]
Do men deserve any praise?
As I hopped onto the taxi this morning, I spotted a man peeing on the side of the road. At that moment, as someone who is anti peeing on the side of anything, toilet seat included, I just swelled up with rage. I was also listening to a breakfast radio show as they spoke about […]
Of birth rights and gay rights
By Steven Hussey “Nobody is born gay” reads the headline of a billboard by a so-called “pro-ex-gay” non-profit in the United States. The ad shows identical twin brothers with the revelation, “One gay. One not.” Profound. Ironically, the openly gay South African model featured in the ad, who has no twin brother and whose image […]
Anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa: The Hart-Devlin debate revisited
The news this week that The Gambia has passed a Bill that further criminalises homosexual conduct and imposes life sentences in cases of “aggravated” homosexuality, along with the continued coverage of the constitutional fate of similar legislation in Uganda, provides an occasion to revisit the most famous debate about the criminalisation of homosexuality in the […]