The Abomination of Humanity

Since I started this blog I have addressed some contentious issues. Some topics caused quite a stir especially amongst a few fanatical Christians. Dealing with Homophobia, Discrimination, AIDS, Racism and even how we as a gay community discriminate amongst ourselves, the backlash was expected but the resulting hate mails ,at first, caught  me off guard.

Later, as I wrote about topics that I knew could be controversial I anticipated receiving the nasty onslaught of hate in my inbox, and they never disappointed. But, it's not only the controversial themes that have sparked hate mail, some light-hearted articles surprisingly did too. Some of which left me utterly flabbergasted.  Haters managed to take seemingly “innocent” articles and mutilate them with their narrow minded ignorance and turn them into something hateful and ugly? Leaving me to wonder, are there really people out there that can find hate in anything if they applied their twisted minds?

In the past three years since my blog’s conception I have posted numerous articles the majority of which, I must admit, have been humorous.  Even when dealing with serious matters I attempted not to lose sight of the lighter side of life. However, some of these articles outraged a few people, outraged them so much that they decided to send me their thoughts in harshly worded e-mails. In total I have received well over 200 hate mails to date, 200 hate mails and counting...

In these hate mails I have been called everything from a Faggot, God Hating Queer, Turd Miner, Infidel, Satanist, Asshole, Mother Fucker, Vulgar Animal, Anti-Christ, and worse. They have also accused me of filling people’s minds with my filth, being a terrorist, spreading AIDS, trying to destroy religion, being a molester of bodies and minds and the best yet “The Abomination of Humanity” (note the use of the wording “THE Abomination” instead of “An Abomination”).

So yes, I have received quite my fair share of hate mails and have been called my fair share of bad names. The common denominator amongst my hate mail is the fact that they mostly come from religious folks.  This special category of hate mails are easily identifiable due to the quotations from the Bible, Koran, Torah and Tanakh; all quotations taken out of context to imply that I am going to hell and taking all my readers to hell with me. (So please take note my gentle readers pack light for the afterlife - it’s going to be warm!)The hate mail I received after one particular article about Halloween (Horror, Weirdoes & Fagalicious Homos)  “condemned me to hell”.  I kid you not!  The hate mail further accused me of promoting “hideous, dirty and vulgar sinful acts” but fail to name or list these acts so it was left to my very vivid imagination to do so myself.

In the same e-mail I was also singled out as The Abomination of Humanity.  Well, to be honest over the last three years I have been condemned to hell by so many people, from so many religions, in so many hate mails that when I do get to Hell one day I am expecting one big mother fucking welcoming party.  After all, according to my haters I have recruited most of its occupants and don't The Abomination of Humanity deserve an epic welcome? If not, don't I at the very least deserve some medal for all my evil achievements?

I still find it hard to believe that there are people in this world with such a narrow minded attitude to life that innocent articles can prompt such ferocious attacks. Having now become quite use to receiving hate mails, I read them with the same regard as I do flyers left on my car’s windscreen. It is just amazing how these individuals rather opt to send me personalized e-mails than posting their disgust on my blog’s wall.

One would think being so disgruntled, offended and taking such personal umbrage to what I write, they would want to share it with the world. After all my dear hate mail senders, do my readers not deserve to be informed that they are also condemned to the same fate as I, or be warned about how I am molesting their minds and corrupting their souls?

Over 200 hate mails and counting.  No matter how perturbing they may be, a few hundred hate mails definitely will not stop this faggot from writing about any issue, event, holiday, topic, belief or highlighting the human rights abuses of the gay community whenever and wherever it occurs.  A few hundred hate e-mails won’t shut this Queer up!

As for my haters, one thing I have learned since starting my blog is that if people want to find hate, they never have to look very far as they can manipulate, twist and spin anything to suit their hate fueled agendas.  Some even actively seek out hate, how else does one explain why my haters keep on returning to my blog? To all those hatemonger fanatics, I dare you to express your views openly and publicly. Come on now, if you are that upset and if it is that important to you, why be shy?

Till next time

Lilly Allen - Fuck you very much!

Coming Out

There comes a time in every gay person’s life when the claustrophobia and social isolation of the proverbial pink closet becomes too much and you need to step into the sunshine as the fabulous and authentic person you are. A time when you no longer can deny your true nature and the truth needs to be revealed. This experience can be daunting, exhilarating, traumatic and cathartic. All openly gay individuals have their own unique coming out stories and this is mine.

On an autumn Sunday afternoon at the tender age of 16 I decided to step out of the closet. After Sunday lunch I decided to break the news to my utterly unprepared family. My decision to do so was threefold: Firstly I have known that I was gay probably since the age of 6 (I kissed my first boy at that age); Secondly I was growing tired of having to make up lies about why I do not have a steady girlfriend; and Thirdly I no longer wanted to have to lie about the true nature of my “friendships” with certain boys.

I was considerate enough not to drop the bomb during lunch. I didn’t want to spoil the meal or cause anyone to choke on their food and having the family drama spill over to the emergency room. During the washing up the words every parent fear left my lips “Mom… Dad… I am gay…” It was received with a cold silence and a shocked pause. I remember my mother slowly turning around while loosing her grip of a plate that shattered into pieces on the floor much like my heterosexual future she had envisaged for me. In a slow, controlled and slightly strained voice she asked me to repeat myself hoping for a different outcome. “I am gay…” I hesitantly said again. The room flooded with tension, disillusioned stares where exchanged between my sister and father while my mother’s eyes were burning holes through me. In her eyes I could see the death of her imagined grandchildren and the perfect daughter-in-law. Without saying a word she left the kitchen, went to the master bedroom and sobbed behind a locked door for the remainder of the day. My father visibly distraught by my revelation later sat me down and told me that he had always suspected that I was gay. He explained that the gay lifestyle wasn’t what he wanted for me, but if this is what I am he would try to accept it, but it wasn’t going to be easy. My sister was fine with the fact that I am gay, apart from the sex part which “grossed her out”.

The next day at school I was unexpectedly called to the principal’s office. On arrival I found my mother waiting for me. Being in an all boy school, my first thought was that my parents are going to pull me out of school as instead of the testosterone fuelled environment “butching” me up I still became gay. As things turned out she was fetching me to go see a psychologist. After several sessions (10 to be exact) with a slightly homophobic therapist he unenthusiastically revealed to my parents that I was indeed gay and it wasn’t a phase. I remember my mother breaking down, wanting to know from the therapist what she and my dad did wrong causing me to be this way. The fears they had were also revealed: Was I going to get Aids? Am I going to start wearing woman’s clothes or even get a sex change? In retrospect, I guess I can’t blame their ignorance as they never had much exposure to gay people and the stereotypes about the gay community were all they knew. After the therapist explained to them with great compassion that the majority of their fears where unfounded and that they in all probability didn’t cause my homosexuality, their guilt reluctantly started to dissipate over the years to come.

Then the religious issues surfaced. How to be a good Christian and deal with your child being gay? Are you allowed to love your gay son who is condemned to hell by the Church? At this point both my parents had started to accept the fact that I am gay, but both were in denial regarding me being sexually active. You see being gay was not technically viewed as a sin, by them, as long as I didn’t practice the lifestyle. Unfortunately, my mother was yet again due for a rude awakening when she forgot something at home on her way to work. Returning home she walked in on me and my then boyfriend in the heat of passion. She almost died 20 deaths and my boyfriend was expelled from the house and remained in exile for 2 months. I am sure both my parents spend an extra couple of hours in prayer that evening.

When I met my now husband I had been out of the closet for just over 5 years. Both my parents, by this time, had accepted my sexual orientation and lifestyle. They have almost come to view it as “normal” and I was no longer the source of family shame or the result of their souls’ condemnation. My family welcomed my husband into our family with open arms, as he was the equivalent of the perfect “daughter-in-law”, so to speak. Unfortunately, at that time he was still in the closet to his family. After a couple of months, I ushered him out of the closet as I didn’t feel comfortable dating a guy and having to lie to his parents. I gave my husband the opportunity to exit the closet on his own time and on his own terms. He came out to his family in a restaurant. Always a good idea as drama will be limited and he went with his own car for an easy exit. After coming out and the truth about our relationship was revealed, I was banned from my husband’s parents home for 3 years, but he was still allowed to see me. After 11 years his parents too have grown to accept my husband and me for who we are and our relationship for what it is. They now treat me like a son. It wasn’t easy for them either, and like all parents I am sure their hearts were broken at first when the son they had didn’t turn out to be what they had wished for.

Coming out of the closet is different for everyone. We all have different families and friends who react in different ways. Coming out is a rebirth and it can be a painful experience for all involved. Those of us who are lucky have family and friends who understand that even though we are gay and live a different lifestyle we remain the persons we were before we exited the closet. They love us just the same and wish us happiness and true love as they do everyone else. I have a lot of respect for families and friends of gay people who support their gay children and peers. They are the unsung heroes who should also be celebrated. As both my family and that of my husband have come to realize, having a gay child and brother is not the end of the world. We can still make them proud and live healthy, constructive and happy lives. This month I have been out of the closet for 16 years and am still proud, queer and here!

Till next time.

Prayers for Bobby- Trailer
True story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance. Based on the book of the same title by Leroy Aarons. Stars Sigourney Weaver.

Giving Christians a Bad Name

It never seizes to amaze me how ignorant and intolerant people can still be. Throw religion into the mix and you have the makings of one fine orgy of hatred. This was clearly illustrated by the response to an “Opinion” piece that was published in local newspaper on Monday. The author questioned this particular newspaper's hesitance to publish anything positive about the GLBT community, citing South Africa’s win of the Mr Gay World competition as an example. The responses that followed was nothing less than disconcerting and this led me to wonder, do all Christians condemn homosexuality or are these people just giving Christianity a bad name?

We have all heard the phrases “Turn of Burn”, “God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”, been quoted Romans from the Bible, referred to Sodom and Gomorrah and been told homosexuality is a choice. Needless to say I wasn’t surprised that all these subject matters and more were covered in the hateful comments by some “Christians” (and I use this term loosely). It seems there are people out there who appear to be able to read and interpret the Bible with much better comprehension and spiritual insight than their religious leaders. Furthermore, these people’s God also appear to be vengeful, discriminating and intolerant.

I must admit I am not a very religious person and I do have some problems with organized religion. When incidents like this happen my apprehensions are further stirred and my willingness to participate or associate myself with such religious groups wanes. It strikes me that some people choose to use their religion (Christianity in particular) to openly discriminate against groups of people. In South Africa the Apartheid government use to do this too. It seems all too convenient and all too easy. But let me tell you - it is nothing but bigotry!

The same people who call themselves Christians refer to homosexuals as dogs and cockroaches. These “Christians” goes further and elect themselves to be judge and jury and empower themselves to condemn as if they are without flaws or sins. They quote Bible verses, out of context I may add, that suits their draconian small minded and Oh So judgmental set of beliefs. They think they speak for God, but I have one question for them – What would Jesus do?

If you want to be an asshole, by all means be one but do so but on your own accord. Don’t use your religion to hide behind when you spew your own personal biases, hatred and small mindedness. Don’t use your religion to justify your own intolerance and then seek to generalize that all people of your religion hold the same ignorant view as you. Because they don’t! And don’t pretend to know what God, Jesus or the Holy Ghost’s view and/or stance is on the GLBT community. I am sure there are much more serious condemnable sins occupying their interest than our small community that were created in their likeness as every other human being.

For people who call themselves “Christian” their behaviour and attitude is in direct contradiction to their religion. I will go even further to state that what they are doing is in fact sinful; there must be a verse in the Bible that would substantiate this perhaps somewhere in Romans or Leviticus. I would recommend they look it up! Who knows, this exercise may even encourage them to understand the bigger context out of which they so frequently quote from incorrectly.

Having read through the now 277 comments I am pleased to see that there are some true Christians out there. Christians who are sane and objective people who can apply their minds and exert sound judgment; Christians who are embarrassed by the hateful comments and uninterrogated thinking behind them. So it seems that not all Christians condemn homosexuality after all. Some people are leaving the judging for judgement day, as it should be. As for the rest, I hope when they sit in church this Sunday they have a good long hard look at their own lives, their own sins and own flaws and rather focus their attentions on bettering themselves instead of judging others.

Till next time.

God Hates Fags and now Hackers Too?

A recent article published on Queerty titled "Westboro Responds To Anonymous: God Hates Fags, And Hackers Now Too!" reminded me of this article I wrote about this psychotic bunch of inbreds.  Seeing as I am going in for my operation this week and consequently won't be of much use in front of the computer I decided to republish it.  There are some truly crazy people out there in the world, but the Phelps Family takes the cherry on top of the crazy cake!

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) and their official website http://www.godhatesfags.com/ have been known to me for some time. It wasn’t until recently that their website and the hatred they preach awakened the activist in me. I decided to send them a message through their website and their response was reflective of their delusional and fanatical rhetoric which I found shocking as they clearly have lost the plot. After doing some research on the Church and their leader Fred Phelps, I was left wondering why anti-gay propaganda and violence inspiring hate speech are still allowed in the USA and for that matter anywhere else in the world.
Fred Phelps and his family have been running their “Church” since 1955. Both Fred and the rest of his family have quite a dodgy past with several criminal charges filed against them. Their church consists of approximately 71 members with 80% of the members being the Phelps family. They have taken it upon themselves to preach the “Word of God” to the world and according to them everyone is going to hell! God hates everyone including several countries but especially “Faggots” and “Fag-Enablers” (people who support homosexuals). They favour the word “Faggot” over the word “Gay” and have a long explanation on their website on this issue. They also come armed with several bible texts to support their claim. They also picket military funerals, funerals of people who have died of AIDS or gay bashings and religious event of Jews and Muslims. At all these events they carry signs reading God Hates Fags, Death Penalty for Fags, Your Son’s in Hell, God Hates America, Thank God for 9/11 and I could go on. After reading some of the tripe written on their website, I must admit I did look out my window searching for rain clouds as I was sure God was going to strike me dead with lightning because, according to them, I am such an abomination and sinner and God really hates me and his wrath could befall me any second!
The most entertaining of the bunch is Shirley Phelps-Roper who is the official spokes person for their loony family church. Watching interviews with her she displays a distinct lack of fashion, fear of hair product and make-up – maybe God hates cosmetic products as well. She looks as frightening as the words she spits from her mouth. She speaks with conviction of how God hates everybody and I also noticed she likes using the words “missy” and “bimbo” quite frequently in interviews. This makes her sound like the bible study teacher from hell! Looking like a scary witch I would love to see her go one-on-one with a Drag Queen discussion the issue of sodomy. I can just picture the head bobbing, finger waving and hilarious statements, references and rebuttals; I would pay good money to be a spectator as someone definitely will physically get hurt by the Old Testament.
The next generation of the Phelps family is just as scary and crazy. They too have the Paris and Nicky Hiltons in the Phelps family. The 2 blonds (whose names I will not mention) most certainly isn’t very bright and their education stems mostly from their cult like family upbringing. They disguise their festering hatred towards everything Non-Phelps behind peroxide, makeup and cute Hilton inspired outfits – maybe they should give Aunt Shirley some fashion and beauty tips if God allows it. The frightening things is Fred Phelps is turning 90, admittedly he will not live very long but his legacy and preaching of hatred will continue through his indoctrinated off spring. His voice will still be heard from beyond the grave whether he’s in heaven or in hell. According to him hell is going to be very congested so if he ends up there I hope he made reservations.

I firmly believe that all people should have freedom of speech but the line can easily be crossed as we have seen so many times before. Clearly, in my opinion, the WBC and the Phelps family are raping their freedom of speech and they are spreading hate speech. They are specifically targeting the homosexual community and innocent people who do not deserve to be disrespected at their own funerals. The Phelps family is causing harm and emotional distress to people who have done nothing wrong and they should be stopped. The United Kingdom is one country, I am aware off, that has banned the Phelps family from entering it. At least their citizens are safe until they go on the Internet.

If what the Phelps family and the WBC are saying is true we are all condemned to hell, and now hackers are too and most countries are doomed. Hell will be bursting from it seems with all the Homosexuals, Jews, Muslims, Black People, Soldiers and the list goes on. Not being partial to excessively warm temperatures and with no bursting desire to meet Lucifer I would prefer to stay out of hell. In the real world where people talk sense, are rational and can distinguish between right and wrong, I will do whatever I can to help the fight against the WBC and the Phelps family. I will fully support people and groups who protest against their delusional cult like tactic, tripe they spew and lies they spread. I hope you join me in this endeavour. It only takes one person to make a difference, let that one person be you!
Till next time!


Shirley Phelps-Roper on Fox News

Hate Mails: F You!

There are days and sometimes certain weeks that I find myself asking the simplest question. The question Why? Why do I do this? Why do I write my blog? Why do I put myself out there, open to abuse, sometimes ridicule and hatred. I get my fair share of hate mails (hence forth referred to as mind fucks). They come in all shapes, sizes and fonts – some even with attachments! They appear in my e-mail inbox, I get them on Facebook and now also on Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, receiving hate mail shows that I must be hitting some anal retentive nerve in the Bible belts and red neck villages of the world, but nevertheless some are rather distasteful and rude! So I will dedicate this blog post to all my haters, homophobes and those deranged people out there who love sending me their mind fucks. Here is my official response to you!

Congratulations on managing to join the rest of the world on the Internet. I would give you a high five but unfortunately I don’t want to catch what you have as there is no antibiotic treatment to cure or even alleviate ignorance and the symptoms there off. You probably didn’t know this, until now, but the world is one big and scary place. It’s filled with people with different believes and world views than yours. Some of these people can also read and write and have opinions that I am convinced that you would not like. Opinions and views much like the ones I express here on my web page that you find oh so distressing. But the queerest thing is, even though you hate me, hate gays and hate my blog you always seem to come back. Why is that?

Do you have nothing better to do than read upsetting and as some of you so eloquently put it “Vulgar, Depraved, Satanistic, Pornographic, Garbage” literature? Let’s face it I’m not competing for a Pulitzer Prize here, and I am sure it’s not my brilliant writing that draws you back to my URL. Could it be that you have not yet come to terms with your own sexual identity or are you just so insecure that you have this burning urge to cyber bully people to make yourself feel better. I don’t know the answer to these questions and frankly I don’t give a shit about your mental health, your identity crisis or insecurities. I pity you as some of your mind fucks seems more like a desperate cry for help and I am not a psychiatrist. Furthermore, I am not a child or a teenager that you can intimidate and scare with your mind fucks. Abusive and hateful e-mails will hardly bring me to tears or drive me to suicide. And then there are those damn “death threats”!

It must come as a surprise to you, but I don’t take your death threats seriously! The symbolic threats of telling me and all gay people to “Get Aids and Die” are laughable. You can hope and wish that we do, but we most certainly will not purposefully infect ourselves. “Burn in Hell” and condemning me to hell also is not scaring me nor is it my readers. In your mind you might think you are God but back here on planet earth, where the rest of us “normal people” live, you’re nothing but a deranged mortal with some really fucked up ideas.

Threatening to “hunt me down like an animal” and then gut me, threatening to kill my 4 cats and my husband and then the wrath of God ravaging my “evil” soul I find rather distasteful. Obviously the dying side of your threats I find unappealing, but the fact that some of you have actually made these threats by including Bible verses as points of reference and as justification is alarming. I wonder what your God will think about murder and your general religious reasoning and will you send him/her a mind fuck as well if he/she disagrees with your screwed up view? Suck on that for while…

I decided a few months ago that I would not publish your shit on my blog. Mainly because you are cowards and too scared to actually write any of your repugnant, delusional mind fucks on my blog as comments. Rather opting to send them “anonymously” via hotmail, yahoo and gmail. The few of you who actually displayed an inkling of guts sent me your mind fucks on Facebook and Twitter, but none of you were man or woman enough to stay for a fight which I find pathetic. In all probability you are those spineless people that can hurdle insults at people in a crowd and behind other people’s backs but are too weak to do it to someone’s face. And Oh Boy the Internet must be huge comfort for spineless folks like you. You can say whatever you want without once physically being confronted or demanded to explain the dire tripe you spew.

In conclusion, you can keep on sending me your mind fucks, waste more bandwidth, waste more of your time and money. But know this, I will still write my blog, be a proud gay man and fight for the rights of GLBT people all over the world by making people aware of injustice, intolerance, homophobia, discrimination and ignoramuses like you. Your hate will not silence me, your ignorance will not deter me and your threats do not scare me! I am queer, I am here and I am NOT going anywhere! So fuck you!

Till next time.

Todd M. Dobson's Thoughts (Caster Semenya)

COURAGE IS A SIGN OF A TRULY GREAT ATHLETE!!

(BLOG: http://tmdobson.wordpress.com/)

I love it when a normal day is underway and I’m surprised by learning unexpected lessons. I spidered my way to a Facebook friends (Pierre Le Roux) blog to read what promised to be an interesting post (Warfare: The Delightful and Dreary Sides to Gay Life). The article Mr. le Roux delicately wrote, details the tribulations of world known athletic runner Mokgadi Caster Semenya, who finds herself in the midst of an embroiled controversy questioning her sex.

I stated that correctly, those who stand opposite Ms. Semenya are challenging whether she is a woman or a man. Mr. Le Roux expresses very poignantly his opinion that in this case he believes Ms. Semenya is placed in the between category of Intersexed, formally known by many as Hermaphrodite. To be an intersex person, one must either have some of both sexual genitalia or in even fewer cases neither (androgynous). However, it is so much more complicated than having a hoohoo and/or a winkie, because there is much that makes either function. This doesn’t even mention all that goes behind the physical parts into the psychological aspects of a person’s sex.

This is a more commonly known issue than people think, but it is one that very few wish to discuss, therefore as a society we don’t even think about it. It is only thought about when parents find that they are faced with having a baby being born this way. Those parents have no clue what to do other than what their immediate doctor recommends. Most physicians try to separate themselves from their work; but human beings can no longer leave their personal ideologies at the door than you can the physical aspects of this issue. However, it is far more than just the presence of extra parts. Some doctors will try to force the new parents into making a decisions right then upon the birth of their child as to its sex. They feel that corrective surgery must be performed immediately to make the child the chosen sex of the parents. This is truly demonstrative, because you have a fifty-fifty chance at making the right decision. But what does a parent do when they make the wrong decision?

Most psychiatric doctors would tell the family to treat the child only as the sex that was chosen for the child, but what of natural selection. This brings the conversation square with one that I have been arguing with Christians over for years, I was born male, and yet I was also born gay. Most Christians are taught by the organized religion that sexuality is a choice, but this might prove them wrong. When a soul is born into this world with both genitalia, why then do parents, doctors (mental or physical) believe anyone but that soul can define what or who they truly are?
With that being said, times have changed many things and for now, half of the physical doctors coach parents to hold off on corrective surgery until such time as the child starts to show masculine or feminine tendencies. The surgery should be done before they enter their hormonal years, so that means before teen years. The truly horrible aspects are; most children are developing both masculine and feminine propensities during these formative years. Some even continue nurturing them through puberty and some even beyond into their twenties.

All of this to point out my primary ideology from the very onset: why can’t we just accept someone like Ms. Semenya for who she is…as she is? If she chooses to be defined as one sex over the other, then it might be the right time for surgical action. If she accepts herself physically as she was born, who are any of us to tell her she’s wrong. Our position should be to LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT the living soul that she is. Nothing less than that will do. She is no greater than we are, nor is she less than we are! She is a living, breathing human who deserves everything that we expect for ourselves.

As for the next time parents are faced with such a decision at the birth of their child…LOVE that being you were graced with as they enter this world. HONOR that they are a part of each of you and perfect exactly as they come to you. Above all, RESPECT that this soul will endure enough from such cruel, hateful people that cannot see them as anything other than the unique and beautiful soul they are.

I wish Mokgadi Caster Semenya love as she traverses this treacherous world of ours. I also hope that the governing body that has brought such attention to a graceful woman, that you see the soul before you as she is, treating her with LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT as you would have all others regard you. Allow her to continue her athletic pursuits without fail.

– Todd M Dobson

Intersexuality & Hermaphrodites

Mokgadi Caster Semenya (South African middle-distance runner and world champion) has been the centre of controversy the last few weeks. Doubt about her gender started to surface and consequently she had to submit to some rather degrading tests to determine her gender. It has been rumored that Semenya is a hermaphrodite (having both male and female reproductive organs) or is an intersex (term adopted by medicine during the 20th century applied to human beings whose biological sex cannot be classified as either male or female). This led me to ask, what are our own attitude towards people like this and where do they fit in society.

Having seen and heard Semenya on television admittedly she does not seem to sound or appear very feminine. With a muscular build and deep voice it is easy to understand how the rumours developed. Having now submitted to tests the result of which will be made known only in November this year, the public and local- and international media continues to speculate. The manner in which the issue have been dealt with is, in my opinion, deplorable. The poor woman has been degraded and her athletic achievement diminished and now could be permanently tarnished. If she is found to be a hermaphrodite or intersex it could be argued that she had an unfair advantage and how this will affect her career one can only assume it’s going to be utter devastation.
The exact number of hermaphrodites and intersex individuals in the world is unknown to me. The little that I do know is that in some hermaphrodite cases the parents are given an informed choice by a doctor to decide what gender the child would keep when corrective surgery is preformed. However, even after corrective surgery it can not be guaranteed that the person will be comfortable with their assigned gender later in life and their sexual preference could also pose a challenge.

Being born intersex or hermaphrodite and having a relationship with a person of any other gender, could that person be classified as being in a homosexual relationship? In Semenya’s case her physical appearance and traits could make one assume that she might be a stereotypical “butch lesbian”, and if she is found to be an intersex or hermaphrodite even in a “heterosexual” relationship her biology could qualify her “technically” to also be homosexual.
In the gay community we seem to prefer to only include Gays, Lesbians, Bi-Sexuals and Transsexuals (GLBT) and noticeably omit hermaphrodites and intersex people. This made me to further wonder why this is. Is the gay community purposefully shying away from this group due to the stigma associated with them or is their case so highly unique that their inclusion is not justified?
In the case of hermaphrodites and intersex people it is often congenital and is a physical biological anomaly that occurs in 0.1% to 0.2% of all births, therefore making the condition rare, unique and a physical deformity. Yes, it can be argued that no matter whether corrective surgery have been preformed on them or not they would inevitably end up being in a homosexual relationship no matter what their actual sexual preference. It is my opinion that this segment of society does not qualify for inclusion in the GLBT community, as true homosexuality entails both parties in a relationship to be attracted to the same gender and that the chromosome and genital anomalies of the one party does not truly make such a person or that relationship gay. Being a member of a minority group I have a natural tendency to be fiercely protective of any other minority groups, hermaphrodites and intersex people are no different. They are people that didn’t choose to be born in the bodies they have, some living with an embarrassing secret and others when exposed are left to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives alone.

The case of Caster Semenya truly is an interesting one, but she is by no means the first athlete who has been shrouded in this type of controversy. The same happened to the Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan who was stripped of her medal at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a gender verification test and was found to be a hermaphrodite. Perhaps the earliest case was Stanislawa Walasiewicz (aka Stella Walsh) a Polish athlete who won a gold medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but who after her death in 1980 was discovered to have had partially developed male genitalia. What will happen to Semenya? I guess we will have to wait and see. Did she want to become world famous due to perhaps being a hermaphrodite, I think not. Never the less, what ever the outcome I believe Semenya should be supported.

Till next time.

Michael Johnson's views on Caster Semenya