Horrible things, and other things.

First off, I'd like to draw some more acute attention to the issue of hate crimes against homosexuals. No, I'm not gay. Who the fuck cares? Human rights are human rights. At least, they should be.
I present to you Millicent Gaika.

Hate crime.

Millicent is one of the most bad-ass people on the planet. She was recently subjected to something called "corrective rape" - or, forced sexual congress to make a lesbian into a "real woman." She was strangled with barbed wire, beaten, and endured five hours of rape before any of her neighbors came to her rescue. She filed charges against the man, Andile Ncoza (her neighbor).

Hate crime.

On the day of her court trial, the police wouldn't take her to court and she actually rode the bus with her attacker, who continued to verbally abuse her. Her case has been extended to a further court date. Oh, and I forgot - she was gang raped for the same reason four years before.

Look at this woman's face. Fucking look at her. This is a human being who has been brutalized. No matter what you believe in, no matter how much you may condemn homosexuality, this is NEVER, NEVER OK. This was done to a living, breathing person for no reason other than her sexuality. What the FUCK is this?? Where is the humanity in this?

Hate crime.

I hate to be accusatory, but this is exactly what you get when you "provide" an outdated set of social mores to an undereducated and underprivileged populace. Do you think they will perpetuate your religious or moral agenda with discourse and respect? Really? This may not be surprising, but it should be fucking shocking.
Even better? S.A.'s national  prosecuting attorney has this to say on the matter: “While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritized as a specific project.”
Oh really? Good to freaking know. And you can't ignore this because it's not in the U.S. You can't, because it's here as well: it was there when Matthew Sheppard was beaten and left for dead, it was there when this motherfucker spewed his hate onto the public internet forum.

We think we're better than this? I can fling my pissed-off diatribe up onto this stupid excuse for a blog, and rage, and not feel any better. What can I do?? I can vote for people who can do something, I guess. I can throw down with fundamentalists who don't give a shit about what I say because they're too locked into their own myths and fantasies to see the picture, I can stand by my gay friends and fight for them.

But there's nothing I can do to save them, or avenge them. Because I'm a twenty year old pseudo-intellectual with no money, no power, no muscle. Because avenging them wouldn't get anybody fucking anywhere, even if it made us all feel better for a little bit. It would make us all just as inhuman, and I can't stand that, either.

I just don't know what to do anymore.