The United States and South Africa: A Historic Role Reversal
14th Nov 2006, 22:27 GMT
Having lived through years of segregation, race riots and civil rights struggles in mid-20th century America followed by an American "holier than thou" attitude towards South Africa's policy of Apartheid, I find myself unusually stunned by the legalization of gay marriage in South Africa. At best I would describe this as a bittersweet moment in history. And for someone of my age who came into this world the same year as Apartheid, 1948, more bitter than sweet. Apartheid was an oftentimes violently enforced system of racial discrimination and separation on a fascist scale. Some would say that it was second only to the Holocaust among 20th Century crimes against humanity. Both events have certainly become icons of man's inhumanity to man. During the nightmarish days of Apartheid, the United Nations and the United States repeatedly denounced this abomination and applied many sanctions and embargoes against South Africa due to it's inhumane and brutal policy of official and codified discrimination and bigotry. In 1994, shortly after Apartheid's demise, South Africa drafted a new constitution that explicitly prohibited discrimination on virtually any ground, including sexual orientation. In fact, after having been the poster child for discrimination and bigotry for almost half a century, South Africa became the first nation in the world to constitutionally outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. And based on that language, ratified some 23 years ago, South Africa has now legalized gay marriage. In the debate for South Africa's new law, a leading government minister said, "In breaking with our past...we need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia." It's also interesting to note that the South African parliament passed the law by 230 votes to 41 despite the standard and virulent opposition from local Catholic and Evangelical leaders threatening "divine wrath" and "the end of democracy." Faced with religious balderdash, the constitution and human rights prevailed. So here we in 2006 and once again the differences between South Africa on one side and the United Nations, Black Africa and the United States on the other side stand in stark and horrific contrast. Only this time the villains are the United Nations, Black Africa and the United States who today stand united in crusading for the kind of discrimination, violence, oppression and bigotry that South Africa was forced to abandon long ago by these very same players. This final step in granting full civil rights to gay men and women in South Africa is stunning to those of us who once regarded America as the beacon of human rights and civilization and South Africa as the last vestige among modern nations of the brutality, ignorance and savagery of a dark and barbaric world. The cruel irony of this is almost incomprehensible and most certainly breathtaking. South Africans of all backgrounds, a people who turned bigotry into an art form, easily recognize that bigotry is bigotry regardless of the target. In the United States even Black Americans turn their backs on the suffering and persecution of the gay community--which perhaps signals more than anything else why racism and bigotry are still so prevalent in the United States. Where is our Nelson Mandela? Where is our Desmond Tutu? A native New Yorker with decades of experience in journalism, public relations, queerness and rage, daily reflected in my blog.
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