Comments on: State Backs Off

By: Homogenized Milk Man

Homogenized Milk Man — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:13:15 +0000

The Ugandan anti-homosexuality law was covered by Current TV this past week.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:21:15 +0000

It’s an issue of the state enforcing heteronormativity on people’s lives – which is not only a gay rights issue, but more generally an issue for anyone in Malawi who doesn’t fit heteronormative notions of gender and sexuality, such as this couple. And when the Western media – including sections of the Western lesbian and gay media – erase the existence of transgendered / intersex people by squeezing a story into simplistic dichotomous notions of gender and sexuality, they are supporting the same categorical structures as the Malawian state, and simply differing on the issue of whether people placed within one part of those structures should be persecuted.

By: dennis

dennis — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:31:37 +0000

Does the controversy hinge around there being three considerations: chromosomal sex, the form of the body, and the adornment of the body, existing along a sexual continuum?

By: Roderick

Roderick — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:15:22 +0000

That’s right, although the distinction is controversial (in the sense that it has been taken to overstate the degree to which there is a clear “natural” or “biological” category of sex).

But I doubt that the Malawi government cares much about these distinctions.

– But I’m an ANTI-communist!

– I don’t care what kind of communist you are!

By: dennis

dennis — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:39:05 +0000

I thought that sex referred to the form of one’s body, and that gender referred to the cultural constructs through which notions of sex are enacted. If my understanding is correct they would be a same sex couple but not a same gender couple.

By: scineram

scineram — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:07:00 +0000

If they weren’t both man this wouldn’t be a gay rights issue.

By: Roderick

Roderick — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:32:05 +0000

Well, it’s an issue of LGBT rights in any case.

By: Anon73

Anon73 — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:38:40 +0000

So it’s not an issue of gay rights if one of them ‘self-identifies’ as a woman?

By: Roderick

Roderick — Sun, 30 May 2010 02:43:22 +0000

Thanks, I’d missed that point.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:47:22 +0000

They're not actually a same-sex couple. The media's reporting of their case as though they're both male suggests to me that the Western media has just as many issues with diversity in sexuality and gender as does Malawian law.