Comments on: On Sacrifices, Intentional and Otherwise

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:26:21 +0000

Jim,
My apologies. Of course that is what you meant. Perhaps, my frustration is better directed in the same direction as yourself – towards those who are expecting a Hollywood ending for Monjeza and Chimbalanga. In bringing up what the Western media has been saying about these two, it seemed as if you were giving credibility to these ideas and putting them on equal ground with reality (well, as you and I see it). My apologies again.

By: Jim Burroway

Jim Burroway — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:36:17 +0000

MJ.

Reading comprehension FAIL.

I think you should re-read my piece. The whole point of the piece is that regardless of whatever one may think of Steven Monjeza and how he is handling the pressures being exerted against him, he is making very real sacrifices for the LGBT community in Malawi. My piece is almost the exact opposite of what you seem to think it is.

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:33:06 +0000

Come on now, “not a hero”? The author wants to make them into gay leaders, to put them on a pedestal, but is disappointed when he cannot. These expectations are too obviously unreasonable. The article mentions ‘drinking problems’ and marrying women who are prostitutes. This is ridiculous. They basically narrowly escaped with their lives (the 14 year sentence would have been a death penalty for at least one of them) and are being constantly hounded by the media. Their own president called their love ceremony satanic. These guys have never had any education or role models telling them that it’s okay that they’re gay. The author seems to believe that these guys, coming from the circumstances they have, should somehow live up to our Western ideals of what it means to be gay. If I had been through all they had been through, I would settle down with the first man I met too and tell everyone I’d never been a lesbian. In short, sorry for my rant, but this author has WAY too many expectations for these guys.

By: Candace

Candace — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:09:40 +0000

priya, you might want to note that I didn’t say “bisexuals go from gay to straight in the blink of an eye.”

What I said: “…go from gay to straight in the blink of an eye– and that’s just not possible for a homosexual to do. Nor is it possible for heterosexuals to go “gay”…”

I opined that bisexuality may be culturally common (though publically and officially denied) among African men and a cause of the seeming ease with which those labeled “gay” seem to switch orientations at will.

Perhaps if you read my posts with a little less eagerness to refute them, you might differentiate between what you THINK I have said and what I actually said.

However, thank you for defining for me what a bisexual is, even though I have been bisexual my entire life and teach courses on human sexuality.

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:23:23 +0000

Candace, bisexuals don’t go from gay to straight “in the blink of an eye”. We may go from a partner of one sex to the other but we always remain bisexual regardless of who we are with.

By: Candace

Candace — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:50:50 +0000

Allow me to clarify, since I can’t edit a post: I think bisexuality is much more common in African men than is acknowledged, and that’s probably the source of much of the rabid homophobia–it keeps their own Gay at bay if they scream and rant loud enough at somebody else. I have noticed “gays” in the Uganda debacle go from gay to straight in the blink of an eye– and that’s just not possible for a homosexual to do. Nor is it possible for heterosexuals to go “gay” simply because they are offered some cash by one of those debauched Westerners that apparently prowl Uganda 24 hours a day, looking to pay for the Gay. I imagine it’s a cultural thing to be able to go back and forth that way, and there may be “duress” involved, but perhaps that’s not the entire answer. I think sexuality in Uganda is traditionally a little more acey-deucey and fluid than we have been led to believe.

Nothing is ever all one way or the other.

By: Candace

Candace — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:52:13 +0000

Thank you for your opinion, priya.

It’s also a pretty safe bet that being beat and tortured in an African prison will scramble your brains and you might act a little strangely as a result of it.

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:29:23 +0000

Candace, I think its a pretty safe bet that they’re behaving out of duress.

By: Candace

Candace — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:19:57 +0000

Yes, priya, I understand that they were told not to associate with each other because doing so was grounds for re-arrest and imprisonment with no pardon to be had– but we STILL don’t know if the public statements of “there’s plenty of other fish in the sea” and the decision of Stephen to marry the village whore were genuine decisions, or made under duress. There is a bit of difference in simply not seeing each other any more, and going to the extremes they have gone to.

They may be carrying out a supplied script, or they may have snapped under the persecution and harassment. African prisons are notorious for torture and beatings, so who knows what happened to them while they were imprisoned.

We have no way of knowing if it’s one, the other, or a little of both.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:15:59 +0000

Lindoro,

You are correct that this issue deserves attention.

Sadly, I don’t cover transgender issues as often as I could because it’s an area in which I’ve found that I just am not informed well enough to avoid making assumptions or giving offense.