Double standards at play

2008-07-30 09:49

Chris Roper

We've all learnt a lot from the whole Jon Qwelane "manlove is for pigs" saga, and several of my readers have pointed out these object lessons to me. At some length. Many I agree with, some I vehemently don't, but I'm going to run through the choice ones and let you make up your own minds.

The first thing readers have pointed out, is that the result of the inquiry into Qwelane's alleged hate speech, which was effectively a slap on his aggressively non-limp wrist, shows that there are double standards at play.

They say that the fact that Jon Qwelane doesn't get fired from the Sunday Sun for implying that gays are like animals, but David Bullard gets the boot from the Sunday Times for implying that black people are like animals, shows that it's okay to be a black homophobe, but it's not okay to be a white racist.

I say that's rubbish - all it shows is that the Sunday Sun editor has guts, whereas the Sunday Times editor doesn't. And for that matter, neither does the Rapport editor, for firing Deon Maas. His crime? Saying that people who practice alternative religions are NOT animals. Go figure. But that's another story.

I absolutely disagree with public pressure being used to decide your editorial policy, not to mention your HR policy, and I think that firing David Bullard for writing unspeakable crap is a cowardly thing to do, although not as stupid as hiring him in the first place. And I wouldn't want to see Jon Qwelane fired either.

However, I reserve the right to think that the Sunday Sun is run by conservative, homophobic, old-school South Africans pandering to the lowest common Christian denominator. But hey, if that's their brand statement, fine by me. And as for the Sunday Times, the less said the better.

Want to be heard

Although having said that, let me say a little more. It would be nice if the Sunday Times answered the two e-mails I sent them last week asking that they correct an error in one of their stories, where I'm referred to as writing on gay internet portal Mamba Online. Never mind, they apparently take the "Sunday" bit of their name seriously.

Which neatly leads me to the next thing I've learned, which is this: if you're a white columnist writing about racism, nobody assumes you must be black. But if you're a male columnist writing against homophobia, many people assume you must be gay.

To put it more clearly - anti-racism seems to be one of the unquestioned pillars of our constitution, assumed (a big assumption) to be common to all, whereas other human rights, like the right to sexual orientation, is only on the B-list, and practiced by people who are non-heterosexual and non-Christian.

Why is this? I'm afraid it's the fault of the usual enemy of freedom, Christianity. You'll notice that this implies that Christianity is its own worst enemy, and I think that's a truth that can be applied to all religions. If Islam was SA's dominant religion, it would be guilty of the same thing, and ditto for Judaism, animism or, God forbid (that bit's a joke), Satanism.

I'm writing this column on a BA flight to Joburg, so I'm not going to harp on about religion much more, just in case we crash and I get hauled up in front of the Pearly Gates for a harp to harp talk with St Peter. Why take chances? But I will say this: if you're gay and you're a Christian, you have more in common with Jon Qwelane than with me, which is an interesting little conundrum.

The lighter side

The other lesson we can take from the JQ story, is that only 5% of gay people have a sense of humour. I know, I know, an incredible, even shocking, statistic. But how else do you explain the fact that over 2000 people have joined the "Appalling homophobia in our midst!!" Facebook group, but only 100 have joined my "Jon Qwelane is so CUTE!!!!" group?

And this despite the fact that I have double the number of exclamation marks in my group, which is a surefire drawcard for gay people, according to my Will & Grace research.

Still, I'm not going to be bitter about it, because we have bigger battles to fight. And the main one is this: representatives of the major South African religions, like loony Qwelane, are striving to strip our constitution of some of our staple human rights. On any given day, a Christian, Muslim or Jew somewhere is calling for the return of the death penalty, for an end to gay rights, for certain racial groups to be preferred above others, or for women to be classified as inferior to men.

That is the nature of those religions, and indeed, of every single religion I've ever heard of. Ironically, the people fighting against these reversals are most often members of those religions. I don't know how they rationalise their fight, but I applaud it.

Because religious freedom is as precious as all those other human rights, which is why, despite the fact that I'd love to be the one squeezing Jon Qwelane through the eye of a needle, I'm glad he wasn't fired. And here endeth the lessons.

Chris Roper is a non-practicing true believer, although not on a Sunday. Pop over to chrisroper.co.za for more preaching.

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