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Anti-Discrimination Is Not About Gays – It Is About All Of Us
When I first read the draft constitution, I loved the article that made discrimination “directly or indirectly on any grounds including birth, race, sex, origin, color, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, pregnancy, health, marital, ethnic, tribal, social or economic status” illegal. Then I read about the pastors’ response that this article should be removed since it would advance gay rights. Little did they know that the anti-discrimination article is the benchmark of democracy.
Our phobia for gays is not the reason to endorse state targeted discrimination. We may boast of being a Christian nation, but discrimination knows no religion, tribe or culture. By rejecting anti-discrimination clause, we are not fixing gays but sacrificing our own rights and freedoms. Gays are just a small piece of the bigger picture. In the nation that is still divided on tribal lines, we risked being discriminated against for various reasons – ethnicity, religion, skin color and even gender.
By the way, the National Constitution is a secular document. It is one thing for the Church to discriminate against a group of people but it is illegal for the State to do so. The Roman Catholic and the Anglican Church in Zambia don’t ordain women.
While they may have religious reasons, the National Constitution places women at par with men. Likewise, many churches are opposed to drinking beers. Given the power to make laws, these churches would outlaw Chibuku, Mosi and tujilijili in our nation. Yet, being a secular document, such demands have no room in a democratic nation. It is therefore appalling that we want to have a constitution that sanctions discrimination against its own citizens.
Again, Christianity is a personal choice. It is about my personal relationship with God. So pushing others to abide by my religious convictions is undemocratic. Zambians who want to go hell have the same human rights as those who will go to heaven.
Jesus did not command us to impose our beliefs on others but to call people to a personal relationship with the triune God. Unlike Islamic states which impose morality on every citizen, Christianity works through personal convictions.
To me, the approach of Jesus is this – accept and respect the humanity and dignity of every human being. So let us imitate how Jesus dealt with outcasts – no where is Jesus reported to have cursed sinners. His love and compassion for all people made it possible to bring about their transformation.
You don’t need reminding about Jesus’ attitude to those who rejected him. James and John – or the sons of thunder wanted to call fire to consume them. But, Jesus rebuked them (Luke 9:51-56). Friends, it is not our duty to destroy those who reject ‘our values’ – God is our judge.
But, there is another reason to oppose to gay bashing. If you believe that gays are sinners or demon possessed, insulting and demonizing them won’t help your goal. Doing so will simply force them into ultimate silence. Personally, I have studied gay communities in across Africa – some of them are children of renown pastors and others play keyboards in our churches. They are not the devils we have created in our own imaginations.
During the 2010 AIDS conference in Vienna, I met a Zambian woman. I asked her whether she had met a gay person, and her answer was no. I then went on to explain that demonizing gays have serious health consequences – men and women forced into heterosexual relationships usually live double lives. They are gays and lesbians at night and married persons during the day. If we don’t protect gay communities from HIV/AIDS, I told her, women will be the major victims.
That is when she broke the news – “Yes,” she said as if something had finally clicked. “My best friend is depressed because she found her husband with his best friend in bed. The man was the best man at their wedding. So why don’t we just allow them to marry each other as opposed to destroying other people’s lives?” I reminded her that she had seen gays, but she did not just connect the dots.
Friends, allowing gays to freely live their lives, strengthens families. Just imagine being forced into same gender marriage – and be expected to love such a person and share the same bed. Not even powerful prayers from pastors and apostles will make you do it.
As aside from the psychological torture you would endure, you will be forced into living two lives – gay and heterosexual. If you can’t even imagine such a relationship, so why are we forcing gays into heterosexual relationships? Archbishop Desmond Tutu has always asked who among us would choose a lifestyle that would invite extreme persecution from the community.
My brothers and sisters, gay issues are highly complex and only humility will help us reach a better understanding. As our nation’s problems multiply, gays will always be the scapegoats at all political gatherings. We have the power to ask Winter Kabimba and President Sata to address the real problems facing our nation. Gays are not the reasons for our woes– Sata’s government is. By the way, we may kill all gays in Zambia but that won’t put food on our tables.
As for those who insult me, I end with Tutu’s words – “I cannot keep quiet while people are being penalized for something about which they can do nothing — their sexuality. To discriminate against our sisters and brothers who are lesbian or gay on grounds of their sexual orientation for me is as totally unacceptable and unjust as apartheid ever was.” Tutu speaks for me – your insults won’t force me into silence! Gay or not, we are all lovely children of God, made in God’s image. Sanctioning discrimination against any human being is not a Christian value – it is a vice.
Rev. Canon Dr. Kapya John Kaoma
Posted by Kunda
on April 24, 2013. Filed under LATEST NEWS.
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sasa
April 24, 2013 at 8:56 am
It is a really tricky topic
KA GELO
April 24, 2013 at 10:29 am
Homos will support fellow homos. Ifyakukopa ku basungu fimo fyabupuba sana. Atase.
Focus
April 24, 2013 at 6:48 pm
I’m not gay but they have my support! This is coming from a married heterosexual, parent and grandparent!
2. Sexual orientation (heterosexual and homosexual) is innate and unchangeable; it is never a choice.
April 24, 2013 at 9:10 am
“It terrified me to think that God made me just to hate me and send me to hell.” This was the response of a teenager to hearing his pastor tell the congregation that the Bible says God hates homosexuals and will send them to hell. He knew he was gay; he didn’t want to be, but that was the way God had made him. But God hates me? God will send me to hell for something I have no control over? Is this the kind of God we worship? Or was the pastor exhibiting very faulty Bible interpretation? The Bible says or implies so many times that “whosoever” believes will have eternal life that we cannot discard that assurance. So whatever the Bible says or doesn’t say about homosexuals, they may not necessarily be going to hell. But sadly isn’t this pastor’s belief accepted by many without any thought toward responsible interpretation?
No sex act has morality in itself.
April 24, 2013 at 9:13 am
It is unfortunate that homophobics seem always to think of perverted sex when they think of homosexuals. To them, a “homosexual act” is sex, though every homosexual performs a thousand acts every day that have nothing to do with sex. Heterosexual sex may be loving or it may be lustful. The same is true with homosexual sex. When sex – heterosexual or homosexual – is out of love, it must have a godlike quality, for God is love.
Fodya
April 24, 2013 at 10:27 am
How can a man like to play with a waste pipe. Its like wanting to swim in a sewer pond leaving the swimming pool. Yaba!!
Jack Malama
April 24, 2013 at 12:45 pm
What a childish comment.
Muslim
April 24, 2013 at 10:31 am
yes muslims are governed by Islamic laws.islam is a way of life which allah gave us.we do not follow democracy,we do what allah in the quran demands us to do.simple
Exodus
April 25, 2013 at 3:46 am
not in Zambia! Would rather support gays than muslims
former christian
April 24, 2013 at 10:50 am
@muslim u are thing,these Zambians want to combine Christianity with democracu,these two are pure opposites,when u tell someone that Christianity forbids adultery he will tell u that this is a democritic country. Zambia should to be either a democratic country to be governed by democracy or to be a Christian country governed by christianity.nt this comedy they are doing
kakolwe
April 24, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Its Seem to me that the Kapya thinks that repeating the same arguement over & over will merit sense. Atterly boring. Non-Starter!!!
Jack Malama
April 24, 2013 at 12:51 pm
So what do you suggest we do with them gays?
Jack Malama
April 24, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Who should you fear, the one who’s going to sleep with your wife/hubby or the one who will want to sleep with you? As a heterosexual guy in this Christian nation, I must say I’ve had my far share of women. And almost all of them go to church. Some are married, some have boyfriends, some are into church activities they use that as an excuse to disappear to a guest house with for sex sessions. So for all you guys in heterosexual relationships, married or otherwise should worry about me, adulterous Jack cause am after your women and there isn’t a dame thing you can do about it.
Sossa sossa ichalo chilekunfwa!
April 24, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Jack, i hear you!
MK
April 24, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Jack i wil **** u wife dd she tel u we kissed o no poor jack its must be had for being gay go to hell
Mundia M
April 24, 2013 at 3:47 pm
I am sure that homosexuality in African free society is absolutely alien. Homosexuality in Africa existed in prisons and that is why it was a taboo to marry a former convict as your family & community frowned at your spouse whether they had engaged in the gay act or not while in jail.
It is imperative to understand that most young people today claiming to be gay have chosen this life style because they find it rewarding as gay western caucasians value their rare sex partners. We cannot afford to encourage this in our society. It will still remain a crime to engage in homosexuality in this country even as recommended in the currently drafted constitution.
As far as I am concerned I am against homophobia, but similarly I am against allowing “gay marriages” that is if we can call them marriages by definition.
It is important that we return our identity as a people and I can assure you that it is unnatural for man to copulate with man & woman with woman.
Let’s ensure we show love and compassion to gay people, but let’s also tell them about the love of Christ Jesus that is able to fix everything.
borngay
April 24, 2013 at 7:00 pm
dream on!!!
Light
April 24, 2013 at 4:21 pm
God have Mercy….Sad to gays that God created Adam & Eve not Adam & Evans.
heterosexual
April 24, 2013 at 7:07 pm
useless
Proudly Gay
April 24, 2013 at 5:24 pm
Am so happily proud for france, for the have succeeded..long live france LGBTI. Soon it will be zambia can’t wait for that day.
gay friendly zambian heterosexual
April 24, 2013 at 7:06 pm
Its just a matter of time, africa will also grasp the fact that gays are born that way!
just the same as white people had to grasp that black people also humans, so will heteros in primitive countries have to deal with it!!
Victim
April 24, 2013 at 9:27 pm
Guys help me on this situetion ,i love my gal friend more than my wife,but she is also married we love each other, what should i do help me