Homophobia, transphobia and any forms of discrimination are unacceptable in democratic SA, so it is good to see big companies like Old Mutual distance their brands from such acts.
Media personality MacGyver Mukwevho, popularly known as MacG, was dropped by Old Mutual, which was a main sponsor of his YouTube series, after outrage over transphobic comments made on this show. In the episode of Podcast and Chill with MacG, Mukwevho and co-host Sol Phenduka were talking about public figures who allegedly dated trans women. Phenduka then used derogatory names “shemales” and “woman with a di*k”, as they both laughed.
It is laudable for Old Mutual not to associate itself with such harmful talks directed at the LGBTQI community. Homophobes need to know that there is no place for them in our constitutional democracy. It cannot be tolerated that one would use their public platform to make fun of others based on their sexual identity and expression. As stated in section nine of the country's constitution, nobody should be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, on the basis of race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origins, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
We hope the MacG incident will send a message to others that it is unacceptable to ridicule people based on their sexuality and identity, and if you do companies and employers will shun you for your bigotry.
However, this incident also revealed that there is still a lot of ignorance and insensitivity when it comes to the LGBTQI community, and that more education is needed. We cannot carry on as if nothing is happening when people are still assaulted, killed and ridiculed because of their sexuality in our country.
Our laws are progressive but there are not enough awareness programmes to educate our communities about issues of sexuality and identity. Disappointingly so, as SA is the only country in this continent that permits same-sex marriages since the Civil Union Act became legal on November 30 2006. One would expect the LGBTQI community to be completely free to be who they are after more than a decade since the law came into effect.
But that is not the case. They still experience so much hate, forcing some of them to hide their sexuality and identity just so that they could be accepted by their families, churches and communities.
Let's share love, not hate. There is no place for transphobia, homophobia, biphobia and queerphobia in SA.
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