PE GAY WEDDING PHOTO SPARKS HATE BACKLASH
The angry public response to a front page photo of a Valentine’s Day gay wedding reflects how far LGBT people still have to go to be accepted in South Africa.
The 15 February edition of the Weekend Post published a photo of Case van der Touw and Shaun Luyt’s Greek style wedding in Port Elizabeth (PE) the day before.
According to the newspaper’s light-hearted report, the Valentine’s Day wedding featured “bare feet, Alfred the ring-bearer dog, and the grooms’ mothers walking them down the aisle.”
The response from readers to the happy couple was far from light-hearted, however. Many slammed the publication on its SMS comment line for highlighting a gay marriage.
Thiu wrote: “Disgusting, and on your front page. And what message does this send to the youth of the country. And homosexuality is wrong according to the Bible!”
Brian commented sarcastically: “Which one will carry the nine-months pregnancy? Bunch of jokers,” while Gary added, “Gay marriage is disgusting and a huge sin.”
Upset said the picture was “absolutely shocking” and asked the Weekend Post if it does “not have any morals.” JG said it was “a pity you could not find a more suitable example to illustrate Valentine’s Day” and described the wedding as “as an unGodly farce.”
EH proclaimed that it was the “the last Weekend Post that I buy” and TN asserted that “this is the lefties way of shoving their perverted views down the throats of the silent majority.”
The newspaper commented on Facebook that it was “surprised by the overwhelmingly negative response” it received. Editor Heather Robertson also defended the inclusion of the photo to readers.
“We chose the picture for the front page because it was aesthetically pleasing and depicted absolute joy, something that is rarely seen these days,” she said.
Robertson added that “it is a sad indictment of society that prejudice against gay marriage blinds many from appreciating the beauty of this picture.”
PE-based LGBT activist Christina Engela said it was “sickening to see how many people (calling themselves ‘Christians’ and abusing their religion as an excuse to bounce up and down on their little soap boxes and direct hatred at other people) have so little good to do with their time.”
Michael Robin Wynne, who alerted Mambaonline to the furore, commented: “I wonder, how many of these people are divorced, because you know what the Bible says about that right? Verse picking makes you look silly wanna- be Christians, so quit doing it.”
One person described the anti-gay comments as reflecting PE’s “small town mentality,” but do you think that these views are widespread in South Africa?
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These guys are just beautiful – go and be happy.
A sad response from the community. I thought we had moved on from that but apparently we still have a long way to go. Baby steps.
SA is a backward country run by parasites – beautiful in it’s nature , however the population is revolting !
Congrats to the lovely couple … Never mind what the community say …. who are they to judge when they walk imperfectly themselves ……. only God can judge … and God know you two look beautiful …
These people should take their bible and stick it up their ass!
To be frank and answer your question,South Africa is no better than other African countries with regards to its views on same -sex relations.
Thank goodness for the constitution- but more appropriately- Simon Nkoli and other gay activists at the time ,for being the motivation to insert the clause ; “none shall be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation” within it.
“Terror” Lekota, now the leader of the COPE organization, sat with Nkoli in prison and , with many others, began to understand and empathize with the struggles of Gay, Lesbian and Intersex people in the fight for equality.
Ramaphosa and others, who were drafting the then constitution way back in the 90’s ,concluded that it would do its integrity a disservice to speak of “Equality” and Rights for all” if there were minority/vulnerable groups who would be barred from the protection it provides.
Not only did they see this as illogical, but they also understood that Nkoli’s plight, as well as the contribution of many others, who fought alongside them- would be in vain.
In the same breath, I hear this homophobia the world over , but human rights, dignity, the right to be treated equally as others, is not exclusive to certain people because of their heterosexual identification. We must get this. There is nothing “wrong” with us. We have the right to be here.
The Bible has been used for many justification; slavery, racism, classicism, male domination, female oppression… This is simply another excuse .
The only reason why people get so hot and bothered by this issue is because , at the base of it, is the dethroning of the masculine/”might is right” patriarch . For how can it ever retain its intent to intimidate women when men can LOVE? When men can show tenderness, affection, nurture, care and feelings as much as females can? It defys the existing status quo.
Most women don’t share my view or understand that this is , intrinsically, an attack on femininity and the intent of men to obliterate it from themselves; even as they seek to affirm their love of “tenderness” and “softness”. They love it, so long as it is “controlled; in other words, so long as women(representatives of these qualities) are kept in their “place”.
Let’s keep the momentum going. This is a good fight that is being fought. Let’s not be discouraged. Love will conquer ALL. ALL.
So after Madiba has passed on & RSA has come sooo far there appears still to be those who hate!! So sad, these people will be sorry for their words when someone close to them comes out! And PS this is no longer a Christian state, so stop quoting the Bible! Your gods rules don’t apply to us all!
Hi Luiz
Just a correction on your story about the bigoted furore around us publishing a picture of a gay wedding on our front page. Fredlin Adriaan is the photographer who took the front page picture, not the editor who made the comment. Heather Robertson is the editor of The Weekend Post.
Thanks for spreading the word about the backward homophobia in PE. We are following up on the story in this week’s Weekend Post.
Kind regards
Heather Robertson
Thanks Heather. Noted and corrected.
I’m beginning to see why Gareth Cliff calls PE The armpit of our nation… here I thought he was being his usual douchie self… guess not
Congrats to the happy couple. Looks like a beautiful wedding.
Fantastic picture, beautiful guys, full of happiness, god bless you , hope you can be together for ever with the blessing of The Lord . Jesus love you! Also he loves to all those nasty people that lack of your happiness , those sour , bitter ones that criticized you beautiful love!!!
ummm, heather robertson, why did you even publish a page full of those hateful comments in the paper? if it had been a black couple in the picture would you have allowed similar comments from readers? “Ugh not another negro wedding! Disgusting!” NO, of course not. You would have edited them out! You don’t HAVE to publish all the SMS comments as I’m sure you are well aware. I have worked in newspapers (big ones) so I know. I appreciate that you share our outrage at the response you’ve received from readers but you owe all gay people an apology for exposing them to this hate speech. Gay rights is not a debate with reasonable people on either side with equally valid opinions. The debate is closed. Gay rights are human rights, get it?
BELOW IS A LETTER FOR THE WEEKEND POST LETTERS PAGE
Gay wedding photo message to the youth
I was in joyful disbelief that the Weekend Post published the recent beautiful wedding photo of Case van Der Touw and Shaun Luyt. It was a picture of real true love for all to see. I was, however, mortified to see some readers response in the following Weekend Post. But in answer to some of those readers:
The message that photo sent to our youth is that love is a wonderful thing- it transcends all boundaries. It says that it is great to find love with someone of the same sex as that is the way you were created. And, Yes God did create Adam and Steve. And Alice and Jerry. Otherwise you are crediting creation elsewhere.
That photo shows gay youth that they are not alone. I wish I had known that as a teenager. There are some 800 million people around the world that are the same as you. As regard the ludicrous pregnancy statement, thank God that an additional 800 million people cannot give birth. We are, in fact, saving the planet.
That photo says that we live in a democracy where we will not discriminate against people based on their inherent characteristics like race, gender and sexual orientation. It says we are not the new apartheid /Nazi regimes of Uganda and Nigeria or 1940’s Germany but protect all our citizen with equal human rights.
As regards homosexuality being against the Bible, certainly not. David and Johnathan shared a same sex love story very clearly in the Bible and God did not condemn it, so what makes you bigots better than God?
Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because of homosexuality? Well, not according to the Bible.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” Sounds like the Sodomites of the Bible are exactly those criticising the gay community and gay marriage.
The message to the youth is that many church leaders lie about the truth- find out the truth without being sheep of these not-so- Christian “Christians Leaders”. The Biblical example by which we should live is Jesus and at no stage did he condemn any gay person , yet he did condemn the overly righteous Pharisees who were exactly like those negative letter writers.
Jesus gave a commandment “ that you love one another as I have loved you” yet these letter writers ignore His commandments. I would suggest you worry about your own souls. Hateful bigotry does not sit well with the God I serve.
To the happy couple, we say, ignore. Love and respect each other and mostly be proud. From another happily married gay couple who share the same anniversary date.
WVN
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