I never say this, but you want to watch this commercial, and I suggest you be somewhere that you can cry a bit without anybody caring. (Damn ninjas cutting onions somewhere in the houseβ¦)
1/2 alttext: "We chose the term "asexual" to describe ourselves because both "celibate" and "anti-sexual" have connotations we wished to avoid: the first implies that one has sacrified sexuality for some higher good, the second that sexuality is degrading or somehow inherently bad. "Asexual", as we use it, does not mean "without sex" but "relating sexually to no one".
2/2 alttext: This does not, of course, exclude masturbation but implies that if one has sexual feelings they do not require another person for their expression. Asexuality is, simply, self-contained sexuality." The Asexual Manifesto, Lisa Orlando and Barbara Getz, 1972.
If you were born after 1994 in South Africa, itβs easy to forget that being gay used to be a crime. π³οΈβππ« While the racism of #apartheid is well-documented, the regime's extreme homophobia is often overlooked.
Under the National Party, it wasn't just "frowned upon", it was illegal and severely punished. Police raided homes, meeting others were unsafe, and the military treated homosexuality as a sickness to be "cured" through torture.
The Horror of the "Aversion Project"
This is the darkest chapter of gay history in South Africa. Since all white males were conscripted into the military or South African Defense Force (SADF), gay men could not escape the state's grip. The SADF viewed homosexuality as a "sickness" that weakened the army.
Gay conscripts were often sent to Ward 22 at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria. "Curing" homosexuality under the direction of psychiatrists like Dr. Aubrey Levin, gay soldiers were subjected to electric shock therapy. They were shown homoerotic images and shocked until they associated same-sex attraction with pain.
When shock therapy failed, some men were chemically castrated.
And then there was forced sex changes: Perhaps most shockingly, it is estimated that up to 900 gay men (mostly young conscripts aged 16β24) were coerced into gender reassignment surgery to "turn" them into women, because the regimeβs logic was that it was better to be a woman than a gay man. They were often then discharged with no support.
From Darkness to Light
While the old regime was using science and violence to try and erase queer identity, a fight for their existence was beginning in the most unlikely place: a prison cell.
The reason South Africa have one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world today isn't an accident. Itβs because of a man named Simon Nkoli.
When arrested for treason against the apartheid state, he refused to hide who he was. He famously did the unthinkable, he came out and told his fellow activists in prison:
"I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts of me... So when I fight for my freedom I must fight against both oppressors."
His bravery forced the liberation movements to recognise that you cannot fight for freedom while discriminating against your own. Because of him, South Africa became the first country in the world to write #lgbtq rights into its Constitution. πΏπ¦π
An FBI employee has filed a First Amendment civil lawsuit alleging he was fired for displaying an LGBTQ pride flag near his desk. The flag reportedly was presented to him after it was flown outside the Bureauβs field office in Los Angeles.
The clause relates to laws that put restrictions on student pronoun changes at school, on girls' sports, and on medical therapies for young people looking to transition.
Eowyn
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