CHRISTINA ENGELA. From the outside, bigots who hate all of us and wish us all dead, regardless of what letter we hang round our necks, are watching one group which they think are scum, discriminating against another group they also call scum. Fighting in a burning house never made sense to me. I hope it no longer makes sense to you.
CHRISTINA ENGELA. I respect people’s beliefs, whatever they may be. The way I see it, what they believe is their business, not mine – the trouble is that too often they make it their business to know what it is I believe, or to try and force me to believe what they believe. How often do we see the anti-equality pundits chipping away at democratic underpinnings, using irrational fear of diversity and beliefs differing from theirs as a “threat” to civilization, democratic values, and their “way of life”?
CHRISTINA ENGELA. “As far as I understand it, Pride is an organization which promotes and sympathises with the cause of Homosexuals. However, practising homosexuals are acting directly acting against God’s Holy Word as laid down in the Bible. So although we are not judging practising homosexuals, (God is the only judge of all our actions) we wish to try and live in accordance with God’s principles. Therefore we will not be promoting this kind of function at all. Please do not send us anything to do with Pride.” Eastern Cape Mirror
CHRISTINA ENGELA. Debating human rights is fine, it helps people to actually think for a change – but putting the equality of some people with what is considered the norm up for a vote every other day – is both contrary to human rights ethics and ethos – undemocratic, and insulting. All people SHOULD be considered equal before the law in order for a country to be considered truly democratic. And any country that does so while claiming to be democratic and to have the interests of ALL its people at heart is, quite simply, full of it.
CHRISTINA ENGELA. Enjoy the last days of democracy in SA folks. Communism and socialism are on their way, barring a miracle or two. Before long, things like “there’s no such thing as transgender or gay in Sepedi” may become slogans, then policy.
CHRISTINA ENGELA. My name is Christina Engela and I’m here to talk to you about transgender and transsexual stereotypes. If someone just said the word “transsexual” or “transgender”, what sort of image would pop up in your heads? What is the stereotype? Mrs Doubtfire? Boy George? A drag performer on stage? A man in women’s clothing? What sort of stereotypes come to mind? A stereotype is like gossip – even though it hasn’t been proved, people still accept it as fact, and I suppose it depends on what people have been saying.
CHRISTINA ENGELA.A couple of things that happened this week bug me. Unfortunately, I am currently hip-deep in work, and so haven’t been able to write an article till now. However, when something bugs me long enough, my thoughts tend to stew over them for a while, until I just have to get it all down and post it. Anyone notice how closely the government’s new demand on the mining companies to hand out shares to local communities in their areas (and failure to comply will lead to asset seizures), resembles nationalization?
CHRISTINA ENGELA. Depression is a problem, and there are people who suffer from it for perfectly good medical reasons. Then there are people who have a little disappointment at home, in the office, who have issues with their appearance or who have a little bad luck in relationships. Their car breaks down for the fifth time in a week and they want to end it all. Their boss tramples on their feelings a little and they want to eat a 9mm Aspirin. Seriously?