STRAIGHT OUT ATTITUDE

According to an article in a recent Sunday Times, “It’s still not ok to be gay in SA”
Published on: 20 December 2008

According to an article in a recent Sunday Times, “It’s still not ok to be gay in SA”, the results of the annual South African Social Attitudes Survey (conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council) that were recently released, showed that a staggering 80% of South Africans are still largely prejudiced against (rather than accepting of) gay and lesbian relationships.

For us, the LGBT people in South Africa, it is our greatest frustration that – although there is legal acceptance of our sexuality – moral acceptance is lagging far behind. It is clear to us that though the architects of our constitution had the foresight to include the need for tolerance amongst all groups in South Africa this noble sentiment has not been carried over to all the people of our country. Religious creeds and cultural establishments still preach prejudice against groups of people and it is only through education that members of these groupings will question and bring about change in their societies.

It seems to be all too easy for any one group to see their own cultural grouping’s needs and not to feel any empathy for others who may suffer due to prejudice and intolerance.

There are also less obvious consequences of a social attitude which frowns upon homosexual people. If somebody strongly feels homosexuality to be wrong will they be more or less likely to hire that gay person for a job? If they become enraged because they believe their understanding of sexuality to be the only and correct one, would they turn to abuse of a gay person?

Prejudice is part of the human condition – we will always prefer one thing over another and there will always be people who will view homosexual sex as being wrong. What we wish to achieve in society however is an overwhelming majority who are tolerant of other people’s sexuality.

It is unclear from the summarised result of the research done by the HSRC whether their questioning inferred whether people were to judge homosexual activity for themselves or for other people. I think this is an important distinction and perhaps also one that some people struggle to distinguish between in their own lives. One of the similarities between the many cultures of our country is that most have a history of societal judgement over the behaviour of others. Our constitution ensures that nobody has the right to make a judgement over our sexual identity. Despite this, a social habit remains where cultures reject and judge homosexual behaviour.

The most important question we are faced with now is how these societal attitudes can be changed. The SASAS study has shown that attitudes are beginning to change for those in younger age groups and this is perhaps indicative of the phenomenon that older people tend to keep more conservative moral viewpoints. As is happening in many other aspects of society it is the young Africans who need to carry the torch and influence their elders in the promotion of acceptance of all facets of our society.

This in turn, perhaps, leaves a task for us, who on a daily basis interact with a non-judgemental, unprejudiced group of people. Ask them on your behalf to teach any zealots around them that it is unacceptable to remain judgemental of other sexualities – spread the mantra: ‘Each to their own’.