- 23 people
- Centre for Conscious Leadership
- structure: introduce everyone, introduce organization
- what makes us proud, excited, fearful to meet each other
- excited: connection, part of queer community, possibility
- fear: challenged by others, revealing, reports to be made, names to be revealed, white space (not very black)
- deep democracy: process of large group, diversity - careful of minorities, introduction to roles in groups, you can change roles during talk, not just a personal view. Hotspots - the facilitators will deheat-support for safety.
- Zuma said he would hit a gay man
- Qwelane's blog taken off Media 24 and being watched at work
- need a queer media forum, media is at talk
- Qwelane should be challenged by his peers
- need a reaction to hate crime, not just reaction to article
- the voice of dead gays, they live in a world where survival is more important than Qwelane's words
- do we want an apology
- is Qwelane's the majority view
- blase about homophobia, don't read it because they don't want it in their headspace
- middle class queers don't have to be exposed to poor lesbians are the least powerful and so many people with power hurt them
- exploitation by white researchers and do nothing to empower
- angry at activists that ignore black women
- forums should be in the townships, need facilitation in community with family.
- Pride is not something that addresses black gays
- Qwelane is in us too, we are abusive
- poor women - they are only safe if they have a use to the people they are with, they use escapism not to face it
- when core issues addressed they get hijacked by politics/activism
- three responses - being, doing, intellectualizing (unsafe and hijacked in intellectual space)
- identity-based prejudice
- courts/legal strategies to get laws passed - didn't bring gays with nor did the public support, need to build a movement, discussion groups are very important
- political environment - going to appeal to populist views like gender/gay bashing
- economic environment - social conservatism follows
- can we mobilize?
- LGBTQI keep adding letters to differentiate ourselves
- activism can have many manifestations
- of course we have to do something about it
- at an individual and collective level
- risk backlash, we should be acting in other social movements, as gays is a global viewpoint
- Qwelane is one of the problems in the environment, etc
- Joint Working Group acts as watchdog
- Ombudsman found that it was not hate speech
- Human Rights Commission said ombudsman was the person wo must make a decision
- Commission for Gender Equality said it is not their mandate
- we don't need an ideology we need a way of working in the world with each other.
I don't think 'natural' is good. There are many things that we apply (some almost arbitrary) (some ignorant and backward ideas of natural and not-natural agenda-propagating) rules of morality. I think 'natural' is a political rhetoric, profoundly abused. 'Diversity' is the only defensible rhetoric for 'thinking' beings. We are not, of course, the only creatures that do thinking, but we are the only creatures with the power to oppress others and other creatures whose languages we don't understand. Us (badly) thinking creatures, slowly, ponderously gathering the evidence of our badness (I see no reason for your (god's) patience with us), have the ability to decide to be better than (the fashionable) 'natural' of the day. It is our responsibility to transcend our vileness. Just that. That one task. Our thinkingness I believe is for that. A world (constructed by god) to demonstrate this point. And we will find every rhetor...
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