disgrace of note
nothing
nothing can compare to this disgrace
this abomination is
shaking with rage
i want to scream
rant and rave
women who dont conform
to a traditional societal view
nothing more than a zona
a slut by any other name
bring the stones
how dare she be free to love
nothing sicker than the wrong kind of love
shove it in the
ground and pound it to death
repeat after him thou shalt not love
its a bizayon she’en kemoh
how dare we how dare she
want to be free
what threatens so much about love
for the same other
that she cant love her community
be in service to her community
lesbian rabitzen slut
g-d
how soon we forget

your silence condones
your silence approves
your silence judges
your silence grates
on me and mine
your silence cuts
your silence cat o’ nine tails
your silence rages
your silence bleeds
in me and mine
your silent blessing
your silent judgement
your silent approval
your silent condonation
your tacit condemnation
will never silence
me and mine

A hunch helped her find stolen car

November 4 2011 at 01:32pm
By Shaun Smillie

It was a journalist and the power of social media that did what helicopters and the police couldn’t – track down model Lee-Anne Liebenberg’s husband’s hijacked car.

Nicky van der Walt was hijacked in the driveway of his Hurlingham residence at about midday on Tuesday.

Moments after the two hijackers made off with Van der Walt’s Rolex watch and Range Rover, the car’s tracking device was triggered.

What turned out as more important in the search for the luxury vehicle was a tweet fired off at the time of the incident by Liebenberg, who was in the house.

One of her Twitter followers is Amanda Watson, online editor for {looklocal north east Joburg}. Watson was in her office in Jan Smuts Avenue when she noticed a police helicopter and car tracking company helicopter circle close by. An ex-cop, Watson realised that something was up.

“The two choppers were circling for a while and I knew that it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint cars with trackers in them. I had a strong feeling that the car was in the area,” she said.

The helicopters moved off and Watson decided she would go and see if she could locate the vehicle. From the tweet she had a description of the Range Rover and a registration number.

Falling back on the days when she was an explosives patrol dog handler in the SAPS, she decided to perform a grid search between Hyde Park and Jan Smuts Avenue.

On Alexandra Avenue in Craighall Park she spotted the black Range Rover, parked in the shade under a tree. Not sure if the hijackers were still in the area, she parked her car about 50m away and phoned the police.

“When the cop opened the door, the keys were still there and so were the bank cards,” said Watson. She had found the car two-and-a-half hours after the hijacking.

The incident appeared to have the same modus operandi as that of the Rolex gang.

Van der Walt appeared to have been followed home from Melrose Arch. In the driveway of his house he was told to hand over his Rolex. The cash was also stolen. He wasn’t harmed. Hours after the incident, Liebenberg tweeted her appreciation for what Watson had done. “THANK YOU AMANDA FOR EVERYTHING! You’re AMAZING,” she wrote. – The Star

But when going up against the Teflon coated President Jacob Zuma, who has successfully sued for defamation of character, escaped rape and corruption charges that would have sunk a lesser man, one should probably not write such things. And make no mistake; Zuma is a real man, with five wives, two fiancé’s, many children, and a personal belief that that same-sex marriage was a taboo not to be tolerated in any normal society. “When I was growing up, unqingili (homosexuals) could not stand in front of me,” Zuma is oft quoted as saying.

Some will say why rehash history, apologies have been made, and life must move on.

Well, if Msholozi didn’t keep himself in the news then perhaps it would all go away for the man who earned the ire of Aids activists around the world for not only having unprotected sex with a woman that was HIV positive, but for taking a shower afterwards to ‘cut the risk of contracting HIV’.

No, he has to appoint Jon ‘Goat Sex’ Qwelane to be an ambassador in Uganda. This is a country which at one stage proposed a death sentence for people who have sex with other people of the same sex. In January, David Kato, a campaigner who led condemnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, was murdered not long after suing a paper that outed him as gay. Police denied the killing was because of his sexuality. Three months before the murder, Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper had published the photographs of several people it said were gay, with the headline ‘Hang them.’ Qwelane recently escaped with his editorial thuggery intact because of the Equality Court rescinding his hate speech conviction. Now the uman Rights Commission is no doubt going to do it all over again, which will drag on forever, again.

Then, his erstwhile friend, Julius ‘Malignant’ Malema, had a buddy fork over R50 000 for hate speech against women relating to Zuma’s rape case.

Now Zuma nominated Mogoeng Mogoeng as Chief Justice, a man the Sonke Gender Justice Network is petitioning against for saying, inter alia, that the relationship of husband and wife should never be overlooked by a judicial officer as a mitigating circumstance for rape.

There are other controversials by the soon-to-be Chief Justice who will be Chief Justice because honestly, when has Zuma ever lost a fight?

So what has this all to do with sluts?

As some may be aware, SlutwalkJHB is coming soon. The recent media exposure (some would say witch hunt) of Mogoeng, is the straw that breaks this camel’s back. Yes, Mogoeng only made three judgments out of a few, but the language and judgments of those three were questionable at best and horrendous at worst.

But in a country where it is estimated that women are more likely to be raped than they will learn to read and amid building hatred against homosexuals, the need to claim the right to our bodies is stronger than ever before. It is for all of the above, that Mogoeng should not be Chief Justice, that Zuma has to attend a gay wedding and Malema observe rape trials.

Is there no untarnished leader who would fight for our rights as humans out there?

Update:

President Zuma places one more brick in his homophobic wall: “It is my pleasure and honour to announce today, the appointment of Honourable Justice Mogoeng Thomas Reets Mogoeng as the Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa.”

its a little word with no stopping power
because those with power
refuse to use their power for good
please dont cry you say
i love you you say as you pat hir hair
roll hir over and make penis shaped holes in hir soul
because evil is simpler than good
easier to explain
its hir fault as you demand your freedom
how dare she be lascivious
see those fresh flesh net stockings disappear into short skirts
its simply all hir fault
how dare he be a beautiful boy with deep brown eyes
long strong thighs its hir fault
that deviant predators are predators
are predators faults alone
but united we stand
societal conditioning and norms demand
that its their fault they must be damned
damn them when did humans
give away the right to be human
when did humans think we should fly
with penis shaped holes in our souls
no means no
not help yourself to our dreams, our goals, our life
no
its a little world with no willpower
because those with the power
prefer to cower and say its our fault
do this do that
and maybe
you wont get penis shaped holes in your soul

*Hir – a gender neutral pronoun

Slutwalkjhb

I said no

The Story : by Brandi Carlisle

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you
You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what
I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you…
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you

god needs to push the reset button

there’s a rhyme in my mind
and it won’t go away and it goes like this
whatever did Noxola Nogwaza
do to deserve this?
and
whatever did chrissy lee polis
do to deserve this?
and all the the others
who have been brutalised and killed
their bodies and minds
vandalised and stilled?

maybe its time to to fight
for every sexually different human
who has suffered nazi treatment
at the hands of so-called humans
gate keepers of the heteronormative way
no more words
no more education or placating
assuring and reassuring
maybe it’s time to hit back
hard and harder still

i thought i’d seen the light
believed in the might of words
reaching out and understanding fears
as we hid our tears as we stretched out
the hand of reconciliation
to a backward hetero nation
you don’t have to understand me
or like me
and quite frankly
i could care less of what you think of me
just leave me alone
i’ll leave you alone
and we’ll both be happy

maybe it’s time to fight?
it’s definitly time to fight…

Ekurhuleni Pride Organizing Committee (EPOC), the key LGBTI organization in the township of Kwa-Thema, Gauteng, South Africa, and the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL,) condemn the brutal rape and murder, in cold blood, of a member of EPOC.

The body of the 24 year old lesbian, was found lying in an alley in Kwa-Thema at about 9am. Noxola’s head was completely deformed, her eyes out of her sockets, her brain spilt, teeth scattered all around and face smashed beyond recognition. Witnesses say that an empty beer bottle and a used condom were stuck up her genitals. Parts of the rest of her body had been stabbed with glass. A large slab of concrete pavement believed to have been used to smash her head was found at her side.

Noxola was raped and murdered in a similar manner as that in which another member of EPOC was murdered almost three years ago (April 28, 2008). Eudy Simelane’s body was also found in an open field in Kwa-Thema. It was clear that she had been raped and murdered afterwards, crimes that the perpetrators confessed to. Just last year, a gay man in the same township was attacked by eight men, who attempted to rape him. Luckily, he escaped the vultures. The men, as they attempted to rape him, were heard saying, “We are determined to kill all gay people in this area and we will do it.”

“It is very clear that these rapists are on a mission. We will however not rest until justice prevails. Eudy’s case was not recognized as a hate crime against a lesbian and the same is not done in the cases of many other people who have been raped and/or murdered on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in South Africa. EPOC is determined to get to the bottom of the Noxola case and push for justice. It was definitely a hate crime.” said Ntsupe, Chairperson of EPOC.

“I am so disturbed by this horrific action. It is the responsibility of the South African Government to protect all its citizens. Hate crimes against LGBT people in this country are on the rise and the government should come out openly against these actions. Protection of individuals who are vulnerable because of their sexual orientation and or gender identity is something provided for in the Constitution of South Africa and should be put in practice. As a regional advocacy organization, CAL will work with EPOC and others to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.” said Victor Mukasa, Project Coordinator, Human Rights Defenders Project at CAL.

EPOC and CAL call on the Tsakane Police Station, where the case has been reported, to carry out a quick and thorough investigation into the murder of Noxolo and deal with the perpetrators accordingly.

Noxola was laid to rest in Kwa-Thema on April 30.