Quote of the week
When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am your God – Leviticus 19:33-34.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit – Ephesians 2:19-22.
Christian Bible
Mosiuoa Lekota, champion for gay rights?
According to ANC sources Lekota also made a decisive intervention at the ANC caucus meeting last Monday during the debate about the Bill, telling those members of the caucus who oppose same sex marriage that they had no choice but to support the Civil Union Bill. Same-sex marriage was a matter of discrimination, not of conscience, and the ANC had always been against discrimination of any kind.
The reason for this support stems from Lekota’s days as a Delmas treason trialist in the late eighties. One of his co-accused was Simon Nkoli who came out of the closet to his comarades during the trial. This action and the debates it inspired (they had lots of time to debate in those Delmas prison cells) prompted UDF leaders such as co-defendants Popo Molefe and Patrick Lekota to recognize homophobia as a form of oppression. Nkoli tragically died of Aids related ilness in 1998.
It just goes to show how people can change their view once confronted with a real life homosexual/black person/American. I will drink a glass of wine in honour of Nkoli tonight. Without him, and without people like Lekota who saw the link between various kinds of oppression, the Civil Union Bill would not have been possible. Neither would our progressive Constitution.
