The New Yorker (March 12) carries disturbing news from South Africa: The entire leadership of the country, except for a very few dissident officials, is in denial about the fact that there is a (fatal) connection between HIV and AIDS. President Thabo Mbecki is still promoting homemade herbal remedies against AIDS, and so are his health minister and his director-general of health. One of their proteges—Zeblon Gwala, a truck driver with no medical training—is becoming wealthy selling his concoctions. A South African epidemiologist, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, points out that 30 percent of South African women under 20 are infected. Moreover, the figures rise as age does: 65 percent of 25-to-30 year old women are infected. Five and a half million people are infected there; there is no evidence that the local herbal potions work and the country’s administration insists it’s racist to discount the home brews.
The Anglican Communion, including the American Episcopal church, is very likely to split over gay issues. Good, says the New York Times (March 1), and good riddance. If the Americans are kicked out for their pro-gay (blessing gay unions and allowing gay clergy, including bishops) stance that will expose the English Archbishop of Canterbury as a ‘quasi-colonial, quasi-papal figurehead,’ it would be a rather awkward state for the bigoted African clerics who are spearheading the schism. The African churches have the numbers but the Americans have the bucks (which they have always helped their brethren with). And, as the Times points out, this African technique of splitting off a few ultraconservative American congregations to join the African homophobes works both ways: What if liberal African (or English, Australian, etc.) congregations split off and affiliated with the liberal, pro-gay Episcopalians? Would Henry VIII even recognize the church he invented?
The Chicago Sun-Times (March 2) wonders what Melissa Etheridge might do since the talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, that represents her has just signed on the anti-gay, right-wing radio host, Michael Savage—who told his audience that Etheridge receiving her Oscar made him want to puke and also that gay marriage that included children was ‘child abuse.’ As a matter of fact, what will the passel of pro-gay liberal stars such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Robert Redford—all in the CAA stable—do?
Is the remark ‘That’s so gay,’ offensive? The Chicago Tribune (March 1) reports that a high school girl, Rebekah Rice, who used the phrase was disciplined (with a notation in a file). Her parents sued, saying that the phrase ‘enjoys widespread currency in youth culture.’ Hmmm: In case no one noticed, youth culture’s language—as it stands—is so absolutely foul-mouthed and offensive to virtually every group of any stripe, that this is no argument at all. To put it bluntly, Rice and ALL of the others who use this term (which originates in equating gayness with stupidity and weakness) shouldn’t use the term because it is homophobic and, yes, offensive.