Haitian Views of Homosexuality
Vodou is an ancestral religion, and viewed by some Western anthropologists as an ecstatic religion. It is not a fertility-based religion (see Fertility rites). This means that the majority of its members are not required by any religious law to reproduce, and homosexuals are not pressured to do so. Haitian Vodou views sexual orientation as a part of the way God makes a person; homosexuals are free to pursue members of the same sex just as heterosexuals are free to pursue members of the opposite sex.
In Haitian Vodou, male homosexuals are seen as under the protection of the Erzulie Freda, loa of love and beauty. She is very feminine, allowing gay men to exhibit stereotypical traits during religious ceremonies. The documentary "Des hommes et dieux" presents interviews with several men who feel Erzulie made them gay. Erzulie Danton is seen as the patron of lesbians, although she is herself bisexual having a lot of children and two husbands, Simbi Makaya and Ti Jean Petwo, though she is said to prefer the company of women.
Read more about this topic: Haitian Vodou And Sexual Orientation
Famous quotes containing the words haitian and/or views:
“The Haitian people are gentle and lovable except for their enormous and unconscious cruelty.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“It is even more grim and wild than you had anticipated, a damp and intricate wilderness, in the spring everywhere wet and miry. The aspect of the country, indeed, is universally stern and savage, excepting the distant views of the forest from hills, and the lake prospects, which are mild and civilizing in a degree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)