“The Devil Slapped on the Genitals”: Religion and Spirituality in Queer South Africans’ Lives

Abstract

SummaryUniquely among African countries, South Africa's Bill of Rights offers civil protection to individuals on the basis of vectors of identity including sexuality, gender and religion. Public opinion, however, lags behind the ideals of the Constitution. Against this historical background, a range of books has recently appeared, giving expression to the interface between sexuality, culture and religion from the viewpoint of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. These texts include autobiographical accounts in three books: Reclaiming the L-Word: Sappho's Daughters out in Africa (Diesel 2011a); Yes I Am!: Writing by South African Gay Men (Malan & Johaardien 2010); and Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa (Morgan, Marais & Wellbeloved 2009). In this article I analyse the effects of autobiographical representations of spirituality and sexuality within different cultural contexts as represented in these books. I show the ways in which religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and African traditional belief systems, can constrain the individual rights of sexually nonconforming believers, and I also reveal ways in which believers establish meaningful spiritual and intimate lives despite these tensions. Queer spiritual autobiographies validate the lives of LGBT people, and they also foster the renegotiation of public culture to permit social justice for all, regardless of sexuality or gender expression.