Queer Bits: Conversations on Life -
The Hager-Hamblin interview

About 3 years ago, Adele Hamblin (former press maharishi and current conceptual photographer extraordinaire) "imported" her partner Leigh Hager – a budding novelist – from the USA with the legal aid of the Equality Project. Now, in the year of our campaign for the legal recognition of same sex marriages, our paths cross again as they join the ranks of support.

Willie Knoetze boiled the virtual kettle and sat down with them for some cyber-‘koek & tee’.

Originally published: 10 December 2003.

Where did you meet?

We met on the internet – and allegedly in many previous lifetimes before that. We spoke on the internet and ran up awfully large telephone bills for 6 months. Finally, the decision was made to meet halfway between Texas and Gauteng – thus London became the designated meeting place. It was really quite amazing, like taking off with someone you had trusted and loved all your existence.  We had no doubt about the fact that we were meant to be together and started making plans to hook-up after our month long vacation in London!
 
She packed up her life and spoils in Texas and flew to Africa, leaving her family and amazed friends in her dust… (I paid the price with many 3 AM phone calls from them all after that!)

When, and how, did you first "move in" together?

Darling, what a silly question to ask a lesbian! We had Venters and U-hauls to our disposal… do you think we would have been sensible, considering the nature of the relationship's initiation! No, I don't think so!

(Laugh out very loud!)

When Leigh arrived in Johannesburg, I packed her into my then habitat, which was the train station type home of my friend Sandra Prinsloo (the actress). The house was always running with actors and other undesirables, day and night!

My poor wife, sometimes I could see her head reeling. She had the unfortunate position of double culture shock in that sense…

We found our own place, soon enough, in Greenside (JHB). A nice old big house where I could have space for a studio – and she could over-secure the house! *LOL*

One of Adele's works, entitled: Dreamfood.

How did your friends and family react to your relationship?

Well, my ex thanked Leigh (with an official oxtail dinner) for ridding her of me....no I am joking.

Leigh is really such an awesome, quiet, kind of a strong, angelic kind of an individual that I am yet to meet a South African who does not fall in love with her instantly. This means that all of them are so happy that she tied The Devil down!

Her friends and family, upon hearing that I was from Africa, kept asking her if I was black. It seems that no one in the USA had ever heard of an Afrikaner or a Rooinek.  

What do you think about same sex marriages?

Adele: It is a very necessary practical arrangement that needs to be an option for any free human being.

Leigh: It’s like a business deal, and it needs trust, security and profit management.

Adele: South Africans are apparently of the “free” variety of human being, so I think the realization of same sex marriages in South-Africa is imperative. Heterosexuals are running around “hoennerafkop” about the sanctity of marriage being stomped on by the gay agenda… Oh give me a break – they stomp on it daily, all on their own! The people on the forefront of that particular mania argue mostly from their shaky pulpits of religious piety. Marriage is a legal institution offered to all citizens of a country and does not require religious affirmation for it to be instituted.

Marriage will help us to become good tax paying citizens and protect us against one another when love can no longer, just as it protects heterosexuals against their animal like male-female bonds – which are fraught with the natural challenges of human nature too.

Would you like to get married - or at least have the choice to?

Yes! I would like to have the choice of getting married, it sounds like something I could get Mama to pay for with a big party!

In Canada?

No, definitely not! I am waiting for my country to do the right thing, which I proudly believe is just a matter of time. We have not decided where we want to make our final lêplek, but if we can be legally married in SA I think our attention might just lean way heavier towards South Africa.

What would a legally recognised marriage mean for you?

*sigh* Do I really have to answer this question? It’s so boring and awful actually...

A legally recognized marriage will protect us the most in death, accident and divorce... isn't that awful? And although I cannot imagine my, or her, very good willed families every being inappropriate in the case of one of our deaths, those are apparently the people one needs legal marriage, for protection, from the most! Also, this would protect each of us from the blinding madness that seizes one in case of divorce...so yes, it is a tool of protection.

How does the USA compare to SA when it comes to lesbian and gay rights?

I don't think South Africans realize how conservative America really is – what with them always shouting out their supposed liberalism.

Once, somewhere in history, they stood where we stand now – having the most awesomely liberal constitution. But time has put the wear and tear on it and the US is now moving into some kind of regressive evolution concerning abortion rights – and even more so when it comes to gay rights, which are basically nonexistent. In the USA, gays are the last underdog who gets to be kicked in the teeth – with very little repercussion for the aggressor.

And finally, a closing message to us ‘queer folk’ in South Africa?

Tell the people who wave Bible verses at you that the same Bible also has God alleging that the earth is flat.

Humans have evidently evolved from that ignorance and we will evolve to where we have full rights and the freedom we deserve – pretty soon. You better believe it!

For more information on Adele and her work, treat yourself to her site at: www.adelehamblin.com

All images courtesy (and copyright) of Adele Hamblin.