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Words: Senthorun Raj
“But what I'm saying is we need to be aware that the homosexual lifestyle carries these problems and ... normalising the lifestyle by the attribution of marriage, for instance, has to be considered in what it does encouraging people into it.”
【我在这里想要强调的是我们需要对同性恋的不健康的生活方式所警觉...如果让同性婚姻合法化，那将会鼓励更多的人尝试这种不健康的生活方式。】
Say what now?
My initial response to the comments made by Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) managing director Jim Wallace at a forum at the University of Tasmania yesterday could be simplified as follows: disgust, frustration and some excitable tweeting. Then came the realisation that instead of exhausting my limited emotional capacity with #headdesk tweets, I should reflect a little on why this kind of rhetoric continues to exist? After all, there are numerous social forces not confined to Mr. Wallace that enable aggressive homophobia in our communities.
澳大利亚基督教党党魁Jim Wallace 本周在塔斯马尼亚的一个大学举办的论坛上发表了上述言论。我听这些言论的第一个反映是：让我恶心，让我沮丧，马上转发。然而冷静的想了一下，我的疑问是：我们至今让然会经常的听到这样的言论呢？原因是社会上没有
Anger is a productive emotion. It can sometimes lead to protest. It sometimes sparks violence. Personally, it often leads to productive writing. So here it is.
愤慨是一种很有效的情感，愤慨有时候会引起示威游行，也有时候让人破口大骂，但是对我来说，愤慨让我想要写檄文。
Jim Wallace’s asinine remarks are neither insightful nor innovative when it comes to understanding bigotry. History shows us that much. His comments appropriate a complex history where being in a same-sex relationship did not just subject you to discrimination or social ostracism, but it was something to criminalise and/or cure.
Jim Wallace 愚蠢的言论即谈不上原创也没有什么见地，对理解饭桶没有任何帮助。还是看看历史吧，他把同性恋和
从历史来看，在世界上很多国家，同性恋和同性恋关系曾经不仅仅受到歧视和边缘化，甚至可以因为同性恋而被定罪，同性恋是需要被治疗的。如果了解了这个历史，那么理解为什么Jim 会有上述言论就容易了。
So given the ACL’s uncompromising belief in the social ills of homosexuality – a feature of our recent history - it is unsurprising that Mr. Wallace would analogise disease (i.e. the risks associated with smoking) and homosexuality.
在澳大利亚基督教党看来，他们相信同性恋是一种病，是近代社会的一种病态，因此他拿同性恋和吸烟损害健康之类的疾病比较就很自然了。
Homophobia, unfortunately, is also not a transient phenomenon. Words and acts that malign lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people as “unhealthy” are transformed in the vast networks of communication (i.e. religion, politics, culture, media etc) in which we circulate through every day.
同性恋恐惧症，不幸的是，这种症状也不是可以传染症状。但是那些把同性恋人群比作【不健康】的言论确实可以在社会迅速的广为流传的。
We need only look to Uganda to observe the dangers of homophobic speech when it is exported as part of a “civilising mission.” In 2009, sermons from a couple of US evangelical ministers in Uganda asserted that homosexuality threatened to undermine the “cohesion of African families.” In a similar vein to the comments made by Mr. Wallace, homosexuality was purported to be a threat to social (as well as physical) health. By exploiting colonial anxieties about moral degeneration and disease associated with non-heterosexual behaviour, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced. When irrational rhetoric facilitates violence, we cannot just ignore it. While the US evangelists in question sought to distance themselves from the proposed legislation, we do not require a complex formula to appreciate the devastating effects of saturating people’s imaginations with fear and anxiety of sexual differences.
我们只要看看乌干达的情况，就可以了解到恐同言论是多么的极具危害性。2009年，一对来自美国的传教士夫妇在乌干达传教时说到：同性恋是对非洲家庭的凝聚力的威胁，还说同性恋是对社会心理和生理健康的威胁。利用民众对道德沦丧和疾病传播的焦虑和恐惧，把同性恋和这些社会问题联系起来。于是，乌干达通过了一项反同性恋法案。
由此可见，类似极端的恐同言论最终可以导致暴力的，我们绝对不可以纵容这样的言论。
Even though Mr. Wallace’s comments were directed to Australians, his self-proclaimed “sympathetic” (read: unsympathetic) dismissal of LGBTI health inequities was extremely concerning.
Without even getting into his generalising epidemiological comparisons (I’ll leave that for another article), is it too radical to recognise that the problematic health outcomes that LGBTIQ people face is due to systemic vilification, discrimination and harassment?
In Writing Themselves In 3 (2010), a national study on bullying of same-sex attracted and gender questioning young people, 60 percent of respondents expressed being victimised by verbal harassment. Approximately 30 percent of participants reported self-harm, with 16 percent having attempted suicide. Harm was not part of a “lifestyle” that these young people chose – it was borne by homophobia and transphobia. What exacerbated these tragic circumstances was that these young people lacked any peer support networks and adequate pastoral care.
Many of us will probably dismiss Mr. Wallace’s assertions as lunacy. However, we cannot really disconnect ourselves from his claims when our laws give legitimacy to this sort of bigotry.
Australia still lacks comprehensive federal anti-discrimination laws that protect sexual and gender minorities. Of the anti-discrimination laws that do exist in the states and territories, a number of them provide publicly funded religious organisations automatic, discretionary, non-transparent exemptions to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Given the enormous public interest on the issue, many of us also know that individuals are still denied the opportunity to marry their partner of choice, regardless of their gender or sex.
In vigorously campaigning against marriage equality, the ACL has become a caricature of itself. A couple of years ago, Wendy Francis equated gay marriage with child abuse. Jim Wallace has previously equated same-sex parenting with the Stolen Generation and claimed the ANZACs did not fight for “gay marriage or Islamic.” So it was probably unsurprising to most of us when he claimed that smoking is better than being in a same-sex relationship.
The ever-increasing hyperbolic claims the ACL make to resist “normalising homosexuality” are drawing close to the lunacy of the Westbro Baptist Church, a group in the US who picket at the vigils and funerals of numerous LGBTI people who have been the victims of violent hate crime. The claims made by the ACL would be amusing if it were not for the troubling fact that the ACL enjoys significant lobbying currency with a number of MPs.
All things considered then, do we really have to wonder who is in the position of doing the “bullying”?
Normalcy is a fraught concept. It is certainly something that Jim Wallace does not define. Indeed, difference and diversity is the most “normal” feature of our humanity.
Instead of seeking out ways to stigmatise people on the basis of who they are or whom they love, perhaps the Australian Christian Lobby could invest more in the values of compassion, respect and justice that are at the core of many Christian doctrines?
In the meantime, I find myself inclined to refract a little part of Jim Wallace’s advice: with Wear it Purple Day on tomorrow (7th September) aimed at challenging homophobia, we should all seek to embrace some “fags” (of the non-plain packaged variety). As a proud one myself, I most certainly will be.
Senthorun Raj is a Churchill Fellow. |
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发表于 7-9-2012 12:48:35
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