At one of the meetings I remember the topic of married LGBT volunteers being brought up. At the time, PC allowed married heterosexual couples to serve and live together. Now, the organization wanted to expand to married LGBT couples. At the time, I knew PC allowed couples to serve but I didn't realize there were guidelines for sexual orientation. Anyway, it was the beginning of a big change and it was exciting. The problem was PC Madagascar was being considered as a pilot country for LGBT couples and right away that raised a red flag with everyone in the room.
Unfortunately, in the three years I have been in Madagascar, I don't know of a single LGBT volunteer who was out to their community. Maybe someone told one or two trusted people but the bottom line is you would truly be putting yourself in danger to be open about your sexuality in Madagascar.
I don't know the first thing about the struggles of the LGBT community. I mean, I know what I can see by being a contributing member to society, but I don't know what it would be like to walk in that person's shoes for a day. But, imagine coming out to your entire family and friends in the states and then joining the Peace Corps to do some good in the world only to realize that your desire to do good is going to cost you your newfound peace of mind. You have to take a step back and deny who you really are not only to be accepted in a strange world, but to make sure you can remain safe for two years. For this reason, I think LBGT PCVs in Madagascar and in similar places around the world are some of the strongest people I've ever met.
But this blog post isn't necessarily intended to bring attention that feat, despite how incredible it is. Instead, I wanted to give Americans a small look at how the LGBT community is viewed by Malagasy people. In western culture, I don't think we can deny that the LGBT community has always had it much harder than the heterosexual community has. There are a great many people in western culture who don't agree with the LGBT lifestyle. I do not understand these opinions, but after my recent English club I realize it could be sooooooo much worse.
Every Friday, I meet with a group of young Malagasy people. The group is mostly students, but there are some in their late 20s as well. We meet and usually discuss a topic decided on by one of the members for about an hour or so and then we discuss English vocabulary and I teach some things they may not have understood during the conversation.
Recently, a 26-year-old woman joined the English club and she has been a breath of fresh air! In her second meeting she asked if she could bring the topic for the discussion. We all said yes and she said she wanted to discuss homosexuality.
The room went completely silent.
Only I said, "That sounds like a great idea! We'd love for you to prepare a discussion about that," though it was clear I was in the significant minority. Of the 15 people in attendance, I would say only this girl, me and another American friend of mine who is a missionary in Manakara were excited about this. Homosexuality had come up once in a discussion I was part of about a year before. It was nothing short of despicable, but I wanted to see if a different group of people might have some different opinions.
In short, they didn't. All members except the three of us mentioned above said homosexuality was bad and Malagasy people need to work with "these people" to change their mentality.
I won't go into major detail about the discussion itself, but I just want to write some of the seriously uninformed and often incredibly offensive and cruel opinions that were given...
-One student said that people are not born gay, they become gay because they watch films featuring homosexual pornographic content. This, in turn, makes people curious and therefore they become gay.
-Similarly, another member said that technology has made people gay. Again, as I mentioned in my previous blog, sometimes things are just lost in translation but it sounded to me like he was saying computers, movies, phones and all the amenities they offer have led to an increase in people becoming gay.
-An opinion of a lot of members in the group was that it is a virus. It was the opinion of one person that people can be born gay because they lack enough testosterone which makes them feminine. We entertained this virus debacle for a moment and asked each person if their brother or sister or best friend were gay, how would you handle that news? It was the opinion of all the Malagasy members (except 1 and the girl who brought the topic) that they would no longer be able to live near this family member or befriend that person any longer. The reason, as one student put it, is that this person may bite you causing you to become gay. So, in the span of a few minutes, we went from the LGBT community being a group of diseased outcasts to a homosexual zombie apocalypse.
My American friend, Joel, and I just looked at each other. It was one of the most jaw-dropping things either of us had ever heard in our time here.
-Others had the opinion that if you go out with another LGBT person you may end up drinking. Drinking often leads to bad decisions and LGBT people will try to take advantage of you in your state of lowered inhibition.
I asked the group, which is mostly male on this day, why they would assume that any gay man would be interested in them? I asked if they ever considered that opinion to be conceited? I also asked if they think that the one Malagasy girl in the room, the one who decided on today's discussion, would want to have sex with any one of them just because they are both interested in the opposite sex.
No one spoke.
-The final part of the discussion was easily the most disturbing. This woman in the room (who apparently has two LGBT friends in Tana) asked the group if they think people in the LGBT community should be imprisoned. It seemed like an astronomical question, but at this point nothing was going to surprise me. Again, it was the opinion of all except four (two being myself and Joel) that people of the LGBT community should be in jail to prevent spread of the "disease."
I asked them if they really meant to jail these people and never let them out. They nodded. I suggested (this is obviously not my opinion, I just wanted to see how ridiculous their mindset was) why not kill all LGBT persons and have a genocide? They seemed to agree that that was too far but I think some of them were understanding what I was getting at and that I was genuinely annoyed by the whole conversation.
At the beginning of the conversation, some of the members said that homosexuality was wrong because of the bible (this is a very religious country) because LGBT couples cannot reproduce. I was happy to make it known to the group that my cousin and her wife are currently expecting their first child. I'm sure you can imagine that to they were completely shocked. I explained how that works and they said that's not natural. I offered a counter argument of a man who is unable to contribute to the reproductive process because of health issues saying that these couples still have children through artificial insemination or adoption. This was still not okay according to them. Unfortunately, I was talking to people who belong to a culture where in some places those who have twins will either give one (or both) up or have them trampled on by cows and the one that lives is kept.
I just want to say that this blog post is not intended to spark controversy or debate on this page or my facebook page though I realize that is a possibility. I think those who know me would attest to the fact that I am not one to involve myself in controversial topics, but maybe I should start every once in a while if there are people who think like this. The real intent of this post is just to give those who read it a look at how people in Madagascar see an issue that is still hotly debated in our world.
In closing, I hope the moral of this whole thing is that simple mindedness is a problem, not just in this country, but all over. Hopefully we can all remember to try and keep an open mind about all people, no matter what their background, sexual orientation or personal hobbies are.
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