Why Can’t We All Be Queer?
Stand against oppression by standing with the oppressed.
The great author Charles Dickens understood it—the value of worthy sacrifice and genuine redemption.
It always seems to be seen as one person identifying with another’s pain and literally standing in their place. The line that concludes Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities is quoted and remembered by many who haven’t even read the book or know the story.
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Dickens’ character, the lawyer Sydney Carton, was never a truly virtuous man. A drunk who had little hope or joy in life, he is changed as he falls in love with a woman but she is in love with another man. His love for her is real, and so too he loves her child. When her husband Charles Darnay is to be sent to the guillotine, Carton takes his place and speaks those famous words.
As a child, I remember watching the 1958 movie with the handsome Dirk Bogarde as Carton. And I remember my tears at the powerful ending.
Through this one act, Dickens reminds us that heroism and courage can be found in the most unexpected places and that redemption is possible for all.
In every dark place of human history, there have been Sydney Cartons. In Australia, Simpson and his donkey is immortalized in poetry, story, and art. The sculpture of “Simpson and his Donkey” by Robert Hannaford immortalizes the courage not only of one man but many who, as medical infantry, went right into the middle of battlefields to retrieve wounded soldiers and bodies. He didn’t know the people he was rescuing. Initially, they weren’t even Australian soldiers he rescued but British. And, of course, there were more people like Simpson, all identifying with other wounded men they didn’t know. Without a doubt, their courage and actions saved the lives of many who would have perished without them.
The life-size bronze sculpture of Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey, carrying a wounded soldier from the frontlines at Gallipoli, tells a wonderful story yet John “Jack” Simpson Kirkpatrick only survived a few weeks on that battlefield. Born on 6th July 1892, his life ended tragically within a month of arriving on 25th April 1915, on 19th May.
When he enrolled he chose to be known by the name John Simpson, and he was a stretcher bearer with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign in World War One.
Such loving sacrifice.
Currently, in East Africa, and in many other parts of the world, a horrible culture war is waging and only the eradication of queer people will satisfy the blood lust of the haters.
Wars are always brought about through jealousy and hatred, and every time, a real or perceived enemy has to be created. Putin’s war in Ukraine illustrates this with innocent men, women, and children in one country despised by the cruel rhetoric of a crazed warmongering leader in another.
In Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and other African countries, queer people are victimized for who they are. Trans people and Lesbians are raped and violently abused as if such treatment would cure them. The same goes for gay young men.
It puts the lie to the scientifically and medically discredited belief that their sexuality is a choice. Who would choose to be LGBTIQ in a country where it is illegal and where you can be imprisoned for 15 years in conditions worse than suspected terrorists have suffered in Guantanamo Bay? At least the latter are fed three meals a day and have some sense of sanitation to their confinement. Not so in most African prisons. In some places, if friends don’t provide food, you might starve. And who is going to identify with you when you can be victimized because you do?
I will write more about the Biblical Good Samaritan story at another time. It is worth noting that that story has inspired many great heroic actions and organizations over the centuries. Religious leaders walk on by as the victim lies beaten, battered, and bereft of his money. It is beyond their ability, and definitely beneath them, to “identify with his pain” or put themselves in a position of risk.
Not so for the many Simpsons in unjust wars. Not so for the many carers, nurses, doctors, and civilians who risk themselves for the sake of others they do not know.
I’m inspired by all of these, and that is indeed why with a small group of people we seek to identify with the pain and suffering of LGBTIQ people in East Africa. If our capacity to advocate can only grow we will be able to stand with more oppressed by standing against oppressors.
Please consider joining us in this battle to literally save the lost (not in a religious sense), heal the sick, and tend to the dying.
Please support us if you can.
www.patreon.com/nosexplease or No Sex Please — Chuffed Appeal
My blog here, and my podcast @nosexplease on YouTube and giggling on audio apps like iTunes, Audible, Spotify, and others, tell the story of the abuse people have received through the church’s sex shaming that in recent years specialises in LGBTIQ+ people.
This blog and the podcast seek to support queer refugees in East Africa who need our help simply to survive. Many of them are killed or die from disease or hunger simply because homophobic cultures don’t merit them as human. So sad.
