In 2023, IT is disheartening that we still have individuals in our society who blatantly and shamelessly discriminate against their fellow countrymen and women based on their sexual preferences.
It is appalling that the blood of our Namibian heroes and heroines which waters our freedom today, was shed to rescue us from the horrors of racial segregation and colonial oppression only for us to dishonour it by choosing to oppress and segregate ourselves based on sexual orientation.
Is this how far off we are as a society and country in achieving basic humanity?
The majority is sexually straight, yet morally jagged.
One would assume that the lack of education and awareness could be the reason why we still have to debate and throw tantrums over what happens inside someone else’s bedroom.
How saddening it is to realise that the people leading our nation are more passionate about supervising our bedroom activities than they are about supervising their allegedly corrupt counterparts.
We have much bigger problems in this country, and if politicians should ever be concerned about anyone’s sex life, then we should be talking about the general promiscuity within our society – not just restricting it to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) community.
After all, non-binary people are not the ones impregnating young girls in schools. The LGBTQI+ community are not the ones leaving multiple single mothers to raise the children of one irresponsible father.
And just when you thought empathy and rationality were only foreign to our politicians, you realise that the people you least expect to be morally primitive are the ones driving the bandwagon of hysterical self-proclaimed hypocrites.
As a Christian, one must ask: Would the God I worship and serve condone the act of regarding someone to be less deserving of love and respect because of their sexual orientation?
Are we not called to love all people as opposed to imposing our faith on them?
Where is this same dedication in reprimanding preachers who preach holiness behind pulpits while undressing young girls and married women behind closed doors?
Why is no one rallying in protest to condemn them?
Christianity or any other faith practised should not be an excuse to strip another person of their right to live their life however they please, especially when their actions do not impact our own lives in any way whatsoever.
It’s time to climb out of the warm beds of other people and face our own problems.
This isn’t the first time our global society has experienced reform.
It only became less unacceptable for women to wear pants in the mid-20th century. Which was also about the same time men became allowed to practise nursing.
And here we are still trying to figure out if it’s okay for a man to cry in public, among other absurd social constructs.
The world is changing every day, and it will continue to do so.
As people, we should learn from past mistakes and allow change to happen in a way that does not cause direct harm to our fellow humans, even if it means looking past our own beliefs.
We don’t have to share one mind in order for us to co-exist. Respecting people irrespective of how they choose to identify does not make you gay, it makes you human.
Mwanga ‘Franq Poet’ Mwiya
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