A Gay Zulu Wedding and the Danger of a Single LGBT African Story
I’ve been mulling over the gay zulu wedding fiasco over the past few weeks. I was excited to see it, but something left me unsettled. Here are my thoughts, inspired by a TEDTalk by one of my favorite writers, Chimamanda Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story.”
Excerpt:In light of the struggles of LGBTI Africans, the desire to celebrate any kind of progress – especially when it comes in the form of a gleeful Zulu wedding – is understandable; the vibrant ceremony presented a sharp contrast to the media’s grim and, at times, gruesome depiction of violent homophobia on the African continent. However, it is dangerous to assign wide-sweeping gains to all LGBTI Africansbased on the perceived victory of a few.
What of gay Africans who view marriage as the least of their problems – young people, for instance, who have been disowned by their families and, above all, seek a stable alternative to homelessness? What about transgender women who experience rejection (and violence) from both gay and straight communities alike? And lesbians–forced to live in fear of so-called “corrective rape”–will marriage mean social acceptance for them, too?
If we’ve learned anything from criticism of the same sex marriage equality movement in the U.S., it’s that too much emphasis on marriage as a pathway to acceptance could only end up benefiting a small segment of the LGBTI community (e.g. gay men, or members of the middle class–while the groups most at-risk e.g. women, youth, transgender people, etc.–are likely to go unheard, and even unfunded.”
Read the rest here: http://www.spectraspeaks.com/2013/04/gay-zulu-wedding-and-the-danger-of-a-single-lgbt-african-story-media-activism/
