Crossroads of faith and love
EXHIBITION: GENDER IDENTITY AND SPIRITUALITY
The struggle to reconcile beliefs with sexual orientation is a journey.
Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (Gala) and the Apartheid Museum are teaming up to tackle a narrative surrounding religion.
Journeys of Faith – Navigating Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity is a 15-panel exhibition that tells the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people who have struggled to reconcile their religious and spiritual beliefs with their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The exhibition brings together stories from five major world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism – as well as from practitioners of traditional African beliefs.
Its stories are drawn from those who continue to practise their faith and those who have chosen another path, as well as from faithbased leaders known for running inclusive and accepting places of worship.
“Many LGBTI people are excluded from religious spaces, either because of direct discrimination or because they are exposed to messages of intolerance and hate,” says Gala director Anthony Manion.
“This exhibition is about challenging people’s perceptions of religion and, hopefully, encouraging visitors to reflect on the common thread linking all faiths – love.”
Journeys of Faith reaches beyond the realm of dogma and offers a different perspective on what it means to be spiritual in contemporary South Africa.
“The exhibition reflects the diversity of South Africa,” says Linda Chernis, one of the exhibition’s curators.
“We intentionally sought out stories from a wide range of people to show how different individuals have negotiated issues of sexuality and gender identity within spiritual spaces. We also wanted
to capture both the positive and negative and to show that religion and diversity do not have to be in conflict.”
The exhibition’s personal stories and striking portraits add a unique humanness to the fierce debate around the position of sexual and gender diversity within religion.
The exhibition reminds viewers that such debates affect real people – people who wish to freely practise their faith and to live and love in peace.
“When my church found out about my sexuality, I was hounded in such a way that I thought God did not exist. They said [my sexuality] was an abomination, evil,” reflects Reverend Nokuthula Dhladhla, one of the religious leaders profiled in the exhibition.
Although pain and rejection weave through many of the narratives, these are not the overarching themes of the exhibition. Journeys of Faith is also about the love and acceptance that LGBTI people have found, sometimes in traditional religious spaces, but also in their own ways.
Imam Muhsin Hendricks, another religious leader profiled in the exhibition, is the founder of Inner Circle, a human rights organisation that works within an Islamic framework. – Citizen reporter
We intentionally sought out stories from a wide range of people to show how different individuals have negotiated issues of sexuality and gender identity
Anthony Manion Gala director