REVEREND IRENE MONROE--The passing of Nelson Mandela saw mourning around the world – LGBTI activists across the globe, myself included, were among the first to give thanks for his unwavering support on behalf of our civil rights.
During his time as president, Mandela, oftentimes affectionately referred to by his Xhosa clan name ‘Madiba’, or as ‘Tata’ (father) – modeled for the world what an LGBTI-inclusive democracy entailed.
For example, under Mandela, South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The country was the fifth in the world, and the first on the Motherland to legalize marriage equality. While in office Mandela appointed an HIV positive gay man, Edwin Cameron, to the nation’s highest court.
And long before his son, Makgatho Mandela, 54, died of AIDS, Mandela was the country’s most vocal and visible HIV and AIDS prevention advocate, campaigning against both its stigma and silence.
But, sadly, Nelson Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy has not had the kind of impact he wanted on the Motherland or African diaspora countries and communities across the globe.
Much of the opposition to LGBTI civil rights deriving from these countries and communities around the globe – Africa, Caribbean, European and the Americas – when not fueled and funded by Western right-wing homophobic Christian groups – was that no credible heterosexual Alpha male role model ever supported LGBTI people.
But as a former boxer and son of the chief of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu tribe in South Africa, Mandela was the quintessential paragon of African royalty, black power and black masculinity. Despite this, Mandela’s forward thinking and actions neither tamped down nor stemmed anti-gay rhetoric, murderous acts or homophobic witch-hunting.
For example, to hear of human rights abuses in Uganda’s is sadly, not new. The country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill will further criminalize same-sex relations if signed by its president. And those guilty of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ will receive the life imprisonment.
David Kato, father of the Uganda’s LGBTI rights movement, however, didn’t live to be punished by law. Put on a list of 100 LGBTI Ugandans whose names and photos were published in an October 2010 tabloid newspaper calling for their execution, Kato was murdered in January 2011.
Throughout the African continent there are numerous stories of homophobic bullying, bashing and abuses of its LGBTI population.
Zimbabwe’s despot Robert Mugabe, who scapegoated his LGBTI citizens for his own failings, has yet to be brought to justice. Mugabe’s condemnation of his LGBTI population is they are the cause of Zimbabwe’s problems and he views homosexuality as ‘un-African’ and an immoral culture brought by colonists and practiced by only ‘a few whites’ in his country.
But if truth be told, Mandela's advocacy has not delivered the hoped-for cultural change even in South Africa, the one country you wouldn’t expect to hear anti-LGBTI rhetoric and human rights abuses given its .
South Africa has a serious problem with its LGBTI population, and especially with lesbians. And its method to remedy its problem with lesbians is ‘corrective rape’.
Corrective rape is a hate crime that for the most part goes unreported and unprosecuted in South Africa. And, these rapes are the major contributor to HIV and AIDS epidemic among South African lesbians.
In the Caribbean, Jamaica is not the most homophobic island country – it’s just simply the most infamous for its anti-LGBTI crimes.
Homophobia in Jamaica goes unchallenged in that a person can simply speculate about a persons’ sexual orientation or gender identity and then plot to kill him. The intent to murder LGBTIs is unabashedly announced without fear because the police won’t protect them from mob-led murders and violence.
In fact the police incite the country’s homophobic frenzy – by either being present and inactive during these assaults or by following and watching the members of the LGBTI community.
And in Jamaica, like other anti-LGBTI countries, homophobic violence drives HIV.
Here in the US, Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy was for the most part ignored by most black churches and their cadre of homophobic African American ministers who professed to have marched with MLK during the black civil rights era.
In 2013 our first black president, Barak Obama, who like Mandela, modeled and legislated on behalf of LGBTI civil rights-like, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, to name a few.
But, there is still a huge vocal and visible anti-LGBTI contingent of black Christian ministers and churches.
Some of these ministers support other LGBTI civil rights but draw the line on same-sex marriage. They say their opposition to same-sex marriage is a prophylactic measure to combat the epidemic of fatherlessness in black families.
In scapegoating the LGBTI community, these clerics intentionally are ignoring the social ills behind black fatherlessness, such as the systematic disenfranchisement of both African-American men and women, high unemployment, high incarceration, and poor education.
Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy and his impact on the Motherland as well as African diaspora countries and communities across the globe has for the most part fallen on deaf ears.
We all need another Mandela to help us evolve.
But as Obama stated in his eulogy to Madiba ‘We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.’
[GAY STAR NEWS]
During his time as president, Mandela, oftentimes affectionately referred to by his Xhosa clan name ‘Madiba’, or as ‘Tata’ (father) – modeled for the world what an LGBTI-inclusive democracy entailed.
For example, under Mandela, South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The country was the fifth in the world, and the first on the Motherland to legalize marriage equality. While in office Mandela appointed an HIV positive gay man, Edwin Cameron, to the nation’s highest court.
And long before his son, Makgatho Mandela, 54, died of AIDS, Mandela was the country’s most vocal and visible HIV and AIDS prevention advocate, campaigning against both its stigma and silence.
But, sadly, Nelson Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy has not had the kind of impact he wanted on the Motherland or African diaspora countries and communities across the globe.
Much of the opposition to LGBTI civil rights deriving from these countries and communities around the globe – Africa, Caribbean, European and the Americas – when not fueled and funded by Western right-wing homophobic Christian groups – was that no credible heterosexual Alpha male role model ever supported LGBTI people.
But as a former boxer and son of the chief of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu tribe in South Africa, Mandela was the quintessential paragon of African royalty, black power and black masculinity. Despite this, Mandela’s forward thinking and actions neither tamped down nor stemmed anti-gay rhetoric, murderous acts or homophobic witch-hunting.
For example, to hear of human rights abuses in Uganda’s is sadly, not new. The country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill will further criminalize same-sex relations if signed by its president. And those guilty of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ will receive the life imprisonment.
David Kato, father of the Uganda’s LGBTI rights movement, however, didn’t live to be punished by law. Put on a list of 100 LGBTI Ugandans whose names and photos were published in an October 2010 tabloid newspaper calling for their execution, Kato was murdered in January 2011.
Throughout the African continent there are numerous stories of homophobic bullying, bashing and abuses of its LGBTI population.
Zimbabwe’s despot Robert Mugabe, who scapegoated his LGBTI citizens for his own failings, has yet to be brought to justice. Mugabe’s condemnation of his LGBTI population is they are the cause of Zimbabwe’s problems and he views homosexuality as ‘un-African’ and an immoral culture brought by colonists and practiced by only ‘a few whites’ in his country.
But if truth be told, Mandela's advocacy has not delivered the hoped-for cultural change even in South Africa, the one country you wouldn’t expect to hear anti-LGBTI rhetoric and human rights abuses given its .
South Africa has a serious problem with its LGBTI population, and especially with lesbians. And its method to remedy its problem with lesbians is ‘corrective rape’.
Corrective rape is a hate crime that for the most part goes unreported and unprosecuted in South Africa. And, these rapes are the major contributor to HIV and AIDS epidemic among South African lesbians.
In the Caribbean, Jamaica is not the most homophobic island country – it’s just simply the most infamous for its anti-LGBTI crimes.
Homophobia in Jamaica goes unchallenged in that a person can simply speculate about a persons’ sexual orientation or gender identity and then plot to kill him. The intent to murder LGBTIs is unabashedly announced without fear because the police won’t protect them from mob-led murders and violence.
In fact the police incite the country’s homophobic frenzy – by either being present and inactive during these assaults or by following and watching the members of the LGBTI community.
And in Jamaica, like other anti-LGBTI countries, homophobic violence drives HIV.
Here in the US, Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy was for the most part ignored by most black churches and their cadre of homophobic African American ministers who professed to have marched with MLK during the black civil rights era.
In 2013 our first black president, Barak Obama, who like Mandela, modeled and legislated on behalf of LGBTI civil rights-like, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, to name a few.
But, there is still a huge vocal and visible anti-LGBTI contingent of black Christian ministers and churches.
Some of these ministers support other LGBTI civil rights but draw the line on same-sex marriage. They say their opposition to same-sex marriage is a prophylactic measure to combat the epidemic of fatherlessness in black families.
In scapegoating the LGBTI community, these clerics intentionally are ignoring the social ills behind black fatherlessness, such as the systematic disenfranchisement of both African-American men and women, high unemployment, high incarceration, and poor education.
Mandela’s LGBTI advocacy and his impact on the Motherland as well as African diaspora countries and communities across the globe has for the most part fallen on deaf ears.
We all need another Mandela to help us evolve.
But as Obama stated in his eulogy to Madiba ‘We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.’
[GAY STAR NEWS]