Category: Christina Engela

CHRISTINA ENGELA. Many transsexual people I have encountered over time have chosen to introduce themselves to friends or acquaintances as being more than “just” transsexuals. Instead of just being honest about having been biologically male or female, and having changed that, they invent stories about having been born intersex – presumably because in their minds, the audience will somehow view them more sympathetically that way than if they were just honest to begin with. Obviously I am not referring to those who were really born intersex, but to those who appear to be ashamed of being associated with transsexuality, or of the route they had to follow in life to get where they are now. It should go without saying that this doesn’t sit well with me.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. The world around us is filled with people who are selfish, cocky and arrogant about their own religious beliefs. I say not these things because I resent the pride others take in their religion, but because the pride some of them take in their choice of beliefs boils over into a hatred of the religious choices of others who choose differently to them, and into persecution of those who dare to do so.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. I regularly meet a friend of mine, who is a Christian reverend, for drinks at a local coffee shop. We enjoy casual chats about religion, persecution and human needs and frailties. He mentioned to me that there is no ONE Christianity, but many, and that today there are more than 200 different formally identified “mainstream” denominations – or “churches” around the world. Ironically, each one considers itself to be the ONE TRUE Christianity, or at least, the face of it. I often find myself wondering what the true face of this religion is, behind the mask it presents to the world and to its adoring somnolent followers.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. If you look at all the weird and wonderful new Bills being tabled in South Africa these days there is little doubt in my mind that the Constitution and the freedoms contained within it are clearly under assault. And those of us whose civil rights and equality are protected by those very clauses in the Constitution which are under assault, somehow seem unaware that we fill the sights and scopes on the weapons being directed against us by those who would chip away at our equality.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. This past Saturday saw a first for my home town. Almost 20 years into our new democracy, Port Elizabeth still had not had a Pride parade or Pride event, in fact it was sometimes a pit-stop for travelers on their way from somewhere else, to Pride events being held – well, somewhere else. All that changed last Saturday, when the very first Nelson Mandela Bay Pride was held – and I was so very proud! I was proud that so many people made the effort to turn up, not just from NMB, but from all over the country, and even from elsewhere too. I was proud that there was no drama – there were no protests, no fights, no rude signs, no conflict – just a carnival spirit of family, fun and celebration.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. Tolerance. Equality. Individual freedom. The right to self-expression. These are the things that make democracy great. These are the things that make life worth living. And yet many people who claim to support these ideals, really do not. While they claim to, they see equality as something they are deserving of, while simultaneously they view anyone they do not personally approve of trying to gain equality with them as an attack on their own superior and privileged social positions. They distort facts and ideologies to serve their elitist and supremacist ideals and hijack democracy in order to preserve a social order where words like “love” and concepts like “good” and “evil”. Even terms like “family” and “marriage” become tools to exclude fellow human beings from equal, decent and humane treatment – as weapons to destroy them.

CHRISTINA ENGELA. Facebook outted me, not for being being gay or transsexual, but for being associated with Pagan, occult and other alternative communities on Facebook. Be warned – Pagans, drag queens, transgender people, gays living in countries where they face violence and murder, non-mainstream religious groups – anyone not using their legal names in order to interact safely online without fear of exposure or persecution – Facebook has appointed itself in charge of moral policing and is gunning for you!

CHRISTINA ENGELA. I drive a Mazda, but I still know what a Mercedes Benz looks like. I have had Beetles, a Kombi, a Renault, a Toyota and a Golf as well. I realize they are all cars, and I at least have an idea of what makes each of them different from the other, and about the thing that makes them go. I also know that cars make traveling from one place easier and better. It doesn’t mean I have to hate the other makes, or refuse to drive in whatever car my neighbor drives.