I am, a very disturbed man this
Sunday. Very disturbed because there is a need to reign in the world order but,
there is not one person out there to take charge.
I am no fan of the church and
the frock wearing men who preside over the institution. I am also no enthusiast
of the pervy slick suit wearing and smooth-talking pastors or of Street Pastor
perched at Wandegeya and Shell Jinja road traffic lights who, are merely noise
irritants.
Out there, there are young men
and women who have issues with their gender. Not just young men and women who
have come of age, but kids who have literally just crawled into primary school.
Transgenders they call themselves. For the record, ‘Transgenders have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their assigned sex. In addition to including people whose gender identity
is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may include people who are
not exclusively masculine or feminine.’
Church of England seemingly
has no issues with Transgender. Rather, it’s so apprehensive about the way
society perceives them, that two weeks ago, it remitted guidance to teachers at
the 4,700 schools under its control. As part of its anti-bullying rules, the
church recommends that: “Boys as young as five, should be able to wear tiaras,
high heel shoes and a tutu at school without criticism.”
Hold up a minute while I leg it
to Butabika Hospital and check myself in. That boys as young as 5-years-old
should be permitted to go to school wearing high heels, a tiara and dressed in
a tutu to minimise the risk of them being bullied?!? In case you didn’t know
what, a tutu is, it’s a GIRLS BALLET DRESS!
Let me weave the tutu into a
personal perspective for you. If as a 5-year-old, I walked out of my room in a
tutu and stilettos, Mr Bukumunhe – my dad that is, would have taken off his
shoes and flung them at me, removed his belt and lashed the living daylights
out of me before calling for some elders meeting under the mango tree in a
quest to unearth if somewhere in the family lineage, one of our ancestors had
lost the plot.
I am not yet done with the
personal perspectives. If as an 18-year-old and on my first day at campus, I
wore high heels, a tiara and dressed in a tutu, I would go back home to find
all my stuff discarded outside by the gate with a letter from Lawyer informing
me that I was no longer a Bukumunhe, no longer welcome home and have been
banished from the clan.
Getting back, the reason why
the Church of England advocates for 5-year-old's to wear high heels is that some
months ago, a Christian teacher was suspended from a school in Oxfordshire,
after calling a transgender pupil ‘girl’ instead of ‘boy’. The teacher, Joshua
Sutcliffe, 27, now faces a disciplinary hearing this week in which he could
lose his job, after the parents complained.
The Church of England in its
defence acknowledges that: “Children should be free to follow their own
inclinations when they dress without judgment or derision. For example, a boy
may choose the tutu, princess’s tiara and heels without expectation or comment.”
Nedda, nedda, nedda! While I agree that boys and
girls to a certain degree should be allowed to wear what they want from an
early age, it undoubtedly does not mean that its permissible - even with the consecration
of the church, for boys to in delve into their sisters’ closets looking for bras,
knickers, tiaras and high heels to wear to school, family gatherings or
whatever!
Now, do you see why the church
and I don’t see eye-to-eye?
Pictures: Church of England, Agencies
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