By Steven Hussey
One seldom considers that positions vehemently opposed to apparently unpalatable details of our beautiful, liberal Constitution are held by parties with seats in Parliament. But of course that is the case, and from time to time the rejection of South Africa’s values for human rights raises its primitive head.
What an itch the African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front Plus had when the DA proposed a motion to congratulate in Parliament the achievement of Francois Nel in winning the Mr Gay World Pageant 2011. Both parties simply refused to allow the motion to pass, and based on their negligible collective of seven seats, the motion was blocked.
Aside from seriously questioning the ridiculous veto power of a small minority in casual parliamentary affairs, one should ask what parties with such unaccommodating attitudes are doing in Parliament given the international praise for our Constitution. Is there something wrong with it? No, I think the backlash was caused by the ACDP’s psychological trauma of having a polygamist fornicator run the country, and what more can we expect of the FF+ who, let’s be honest, have not exactly been a beacon for racial equality, let alone equality for sexual “deviants” (a.k.a. that abominable “M” word).
The ACDP in particular, who “clearly cannot support [same-sex marriage]” (despite being surprisingly reserved about divorce being the greatest threat to traditional marriage), has in almost poetic hypocrisy complained about the lack of funding devoted to the Human Rights Commission in the 2011 budget. Perhaps the party is in denial about what the term “human rights” actually espouses, a state of mind not completely unexpected when a party’s members spend more time with their noses in Leviticus and Romans than in credible literature.
(In case I again be accused of intolerance towards Christians, as I was of highlighting Ugandan hypocrisy, let me clarify that I have never attempted to discriminate against Christians, despite my criticism of religion as is my right to do so. I get bombarded with Scriptures and tales of Jesus almost daily, and I tolerate all of them. Anyway, I would by all means allow for the congratulation of Mr Christian World in Parliament if ever there were such a thing).
Let me not let the FF+ off the hook, either. Their attention-seeking activism against “reverse discrimination” of the poor, demonised white minority is met with little respect or acceptance for minorities of a different kind, it would seem.
The very fact that our country is so diverse and that such a plethora of human rights are constitutionally protected necessarily means that you will have to begrudge antithesis to your opinion from time to time. Pretending that the South African gay community isn’t thriving and winning international contests, as is clearly the case in point, achieves nothing. If the ACDP and FF+ wanted to win the dedication trophy for their, uh, “heroic” protection of conservative values, they would be cat-calling at our president for his clearly un-Christian lifestyle every time he enters the House. Or decrying the worship of busty, nudely-clad cheerleaders at a FF+ supporter-enriched Blue Bulls match.
I would assume the modest political muscle of these groups are the spark for the anti-progressive, recalcitrant bullying that is their act of censoring the achievements of a universally persecuted minority. Perhaps it is pure jealousy — after all, comparatively few South Africans care for the Old Testament moral slavery of the ACDP or the vested pale interests of the FF+; why should they be interested in the crowning of an international sashed-up gay celebrity?
Can we not celebrate all our country’s achievements? As a nation we go nuts over our batting skills in a frivolous, white colonial game called cricket — our World Cup achievements were applauded by a motion in Parliament earlier this week. Why can’t some of us grant a hint of praise to what those batting for the other team have achieved?
Steven is a PhD student in Genetics at the University of Pretoria and a 2010 Mandela Rhodes Scholar. In his research he has experienced some difficulty in differentiating the 99% of our genomes that we share with chimpanzees from the 1% that is unique to humans.
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