Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Price winner,

Who would have thought that South Africa leads the way in Human Rights for GLBT people? One of the seminars that I attended today was about Transgender Rights around the world and one of the points that they talked about was…

Desmond Tutu: "Homophobia equals apartheid"

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

afrol News, 7 July - Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Price winner, has lent his name to the fight against homophobia in Africa and around the world. The prominent South African says homophobia is a "crime against humanity" and "every bit unjust" as apartheid.

The former head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa made these statements at the launching of the book "Sex, Love & Homophobia", published last week by Amnesty International UK. Mr Tutu has written the foreword to the human rights group's book….

… Yet, all over the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are persecuted, writes Archbishop Tutu. "We treat them as pariahs and push them outside our communities. We make them doubt that they too are children of God - and this must be nearly the ultimate blasphemy. We blame them for what they are," he adds….

…For Archishop Tutu, these "destructive forces" of "hatred and prejudice" are an evil. "A parent who brings up a child to be a racist damages that child, damages the community in which they live, damages our hopes for a better world. A parent who teaches a child that there is only one sexual orientation and that anything else is evil denies our humanity and their own too," Mr Tutu concludes.

This is a lesion that we should learn here as we debate whether gender inclusive ENDA should be passed.