Happy Birthday Mandela

Michael writes:

On 18 July 1918, Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Qunu in the Transkei, South Africa.  Born to African royalty, Mandela (a Methodist Christian) studied and practiced law, joined the African National Congress during its Gandhian nonviolence stage, and later came to lead this central organization in the struggle against apartheid(racial separation) in South Africa.  After the Sharpesville massacre (1961) of unarmed students, Mandela led the ANC to abandon its commitment to Gandhian nonviolence and take up arms in a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare (terrorism was rejected).

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Murder of South African Lesbians

Fellow Blog and the Bullet member, Yolanda, blogs about the recent rash of murders of lesbians in South Africa:

Like the United States, South Africa is a deeply misogynist, racist, and homophobic society, a consequence of its (our) legacy of white supremacy and apartheid. It has one of the highest per capita sexual violence rates in the world, and women who identify as lesbians or who are thought to be LGBT are routinely targeted for rape. Police are often unresponsive to this violence and insensitive to its victims. Perhaps not surprisingly, misogynist-homophobic violence often hits Black women and girls the hardest.

Health Care for Everyone?

Jack, from Angry Brown Butch comments on the recent conversation about health care of Feministe:

…folks question whether trans health care is really a necessity; in the face of countless trans people and medical professionals who maintain that, yes, trans health care in its various forms is medically necessary for some people, this is simply another form of meritocracy, with trans people’s needs falling rather to the wayside, being deemed less important than – what – “normal” health needs? Still others take the “divide and conquer tack”, asserting that by advocating for the inclusion of trans health care in universal health care, we’re providing conservatives with ammunition that can take down the whole damned cause. Funny, this sounds familiar: hasn’t social movement after social movement tried to shunt their less popular members and issues out of sight, asking them to take the back seat so as to not prevent the more publicly palatable people and issues from getting a pass from the establishment?