FROM CHRIS TO CHRISTINA
It was reported in the news yesterday that one of the two gay men who were recently imprisoned in Malawi and sentenced to 14 years for "gross indecency and unnatural acts" – we’ll get to that in a minute – is now dating a woman.
GEE; You don’t say?! I'm surprised after what he and his ex partner went through he didn't cut off his unit and retire from dating altogether. Poor man has been scarred for life for simply trying to be who he is – not to mention outed across the entire world and deemed a deviant to all his surrounding villagers, of course he's decided to switch teams! I can hear the wheels in his head churning from here. ‘Hmmm, in these parts, loving a man will get me 14 years in the cold hard slammer and ostracized from all that I know and love, not to mention I'll probably get killed in my sleep upon my release…..DAYUM that woman looks fine! Hey baby what’s your number?’
It’s downright absurd that in today's day and age people are still getting arrested for loving (or merely dating) what society deems as the ‘wrong’ sort of person. Clearly the civil rights movement did not teach us anything. No surprise there, we are achingly slow learners. And to make it all the more despicable, in some countries it’s not only wrong and repugnant, it’s deemed unnatural and indecent. Let’s put it in perspective people, fancying a sheep or cow is unnatural and indecent – if the sheep can’t consent it should not be happening – loving another human no matter what sex he/she is, is just that, an act of love. Yes, I shall say it again for the cheap seats, love is love, I don’t care what color, creed or package it comes in. Get over it (and if you’re one of those that says the bible says this or that, my response to you is that the bible says a lot of things that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. It also says some preposterous things that have no place in modern day society. Sorry to be brutal, but it’s true).
The ironic thing is, society at large doesn’t seem to care about my dating history when I picked my fair share of total losers in my past. They were fine with me dating the lazy who refused to work, the ones in need of serious anger management, the flat out A-holes who didn’t deserve love in any fashion. Hell, you’re allowed to date serial killers and rapists in prison ("he was just so kind in his letters." seriously?!)…but if I were to date a woman, then society has a problem with it, or in short, I am outside of the 'norm.' (I say Amen to that!)
And don't kid yourself, I am not just talking about Malawi, as we know full well that Western countries may look evolved, but here we are still fighting the good fight to get everyone’s rights recognized. America may feign acceptance and tune into Ellen Degeneres (on TV) and tell themselves proudly, 'Look Ma, I can embrace ‘those homosexuals; this one's even funny!' but when it comes right down to it, they are the first to put up roadblocks when it comes to recognizing equal rights.
The thing that gets me is the overt fascism in the stance of the government and all those opposed (why not make it a huge umbrella). Yeah, I just used the F word. In short, 'WE as your government can tell you that the person you’ve picked out as your partner we will refuse to recognize as your legal partner – and all that this entails. But please, remember to pay your taxes.' If I were gay I’d be mailing my tax check in a Molotov cocktail - this is for sure going to get me on some sort of watch list I can just feel it!
Don't get me wrong, I don't blame the poor man in Malawi - he's merely trying to survive in a very conservative and closeminded society; And to that, good luck with women sir, I can't say the ride is going to be much easier, we can certainly be a handful. But I will and can happily blame the rest of you out there who can't open their eyes and see that discrimination wears a variety of coats and they're all ugly as hell. Time to go shopping people.