Before being branded as a blaspheming ranging heathen, I
barely apply REASON, reason beyond the whitewash of a man in robes, who says he
speaks for a higher being. A man, who outside their religious places of
worship, would participate in the lynching of a cross-dresser in a robe, in the
name of words from a book. Their justification? That how dare a man dress in a gown like a woman?
That how dare a man subjugate his masculinity to look like a person of the
weaker sex?
Religious leaders who continue to preach selective faith
based messages against sexual minority persons are guilty of socially
sanctioned discrimination. The homophobic hostility that is emanating from religious
institutions across the world has provided justification for families to turn
against and reject their own kin and driven them to such despair and hopelessness
that they lack any motivation to live any form of fulfilling life.
The society
offers no reprieve, feeding on their vulnerability and stripping them of human dignity.
Cherry picking clobber verses in scripture, faith leaders
claim to speak for the society, and bask in the glory of damning so called abominations
who they claim, will be the death of mankind. “Learned friends” come out in hordes
adding that homosexuals will take over the world in political, social and
economic spheres that will render “normal” heterosexuals as the segregated minority.
Oh! And, do not forget the famous quote that “homosexuality
is unafrican and against Christian teachings”. Never mind that Christianity was
imposed on Africans by colonial masters, as are the draconian laws left behind
by the same colonialists.
Religious leaders talk ill of the international
community that calls out human rights violations and discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender identity. That the international community is “pushing
western agendas and social deviant behaviours” while recruiting children and
turning them homosexual.
The same institutions remain silent when women are subjected
to corrective rape in order to cure them of lesbianism. In some communities, the
girls are forced to marry the perpetrators. In other religious doctrines, the
victims are publicly flogged and stigmatized. It is common for lesbians to be
accused of causing the men to rape them, for challenging their masculinity.
Spiritual leaders take front seat in engendering bigotry. “Love the sinner, hate the sin!” Destructive
practices such as coercive therapy and ‘praying the gay away’, coupled with the
trauma of rejection and abandonment, result to self-loathing by same-sex loving persons. The
very essence condemns an individual for who they are. All in the name of centuries
old translated scrolls.
My simple reason, before one airs their very loud share of
hellfire and brimstone upon another person that they know nothing about,
for who they are, I may just ask a poignant question: is it really about them,
or more about you? What is your reason?
