Yesterday's episode of Murder at Ryan's Run went into some detail about MOVE's position on homosexuality, detailed extreme homophobia that is often hidden from the public, and mentioned a section of Guidelines (MOVE's scriptures) on homosexuality. Those pages of Guidelines were posted on the Murder at Ryan's Run Instagram account and I have also posted them below. The first three pages of Guidelines have been copied many times and, as a result, are difficult to read. The last page is very clear, and there are sections of the first three pages that are also easy to read. In the near future, I'll type out some key quotes from these sections for a more detailed analysis. Today I want to frame these sections of Guidelines a bit, explain why I think they should be posted at all, and leave them here for anyone interested to read.
There are a few things that are helpful to understand before reading through these documents. The first is that within MOVE everything that John Africa ever said is considered Guidelines. If he said it and it was written down then it is included amongst thousands of pages of MOVE's scriptures. These are not stored in a book, but consist of many thousands of pages, like the ones below, which are stored in filing cabinets and boxes and are dispersed among current members, and many who have left MOVE but held on to these documents. In the early '70s there was a collection of Guidelines called The Book, but from that time until the bombing on Osage Ave. the page count grew by the day.
Within MOVE all of the Guidelines are absolute truth. You cannot question the Guidelines. To question the Guidelines would be to question John Africa, which would be to question God, which would be to question life itself, which would be suicidal. That last sentence is not my own creation but is straight MOVE doctrine.
The other thing that needs to be understood is that a very small percentage of the Guidelines are shown to outsiders. The Guidelines shown to outsiders are of a very different tone than those that MOVE members see. Some of the Guidelines given to outsiders are quite beautiful and have a system of logic and use of language that's worth some exploration. Guidelines are even heavily guarded amongst members and there are many sections of Guidelines that only MOVE's leadership has access to. The sections below would never be made publicly available.
I have to admit that there is part of me that feels a bit uncomfortable with posting these publicly. In some ways, it feels like a cheap shot because these are such alienating documents and I'm not presenting them within the large context of MOVE writings that may make them a bit more understandable. However, it still seems that it's worth posting these for a few reasons which I'll outline below. I also plan to post other sections of Guidelines in the future, and hopefully, my commentaries on those will provide more context for these.
One reason it seems important to post these documents is that young people in MOVE have grown up with these teachings about homosexuality and it has caused great psychological harm. The fact that MOVE publicly works alongside LGBTQ groups while privately teaching such extreme homophobia has been too much to bear for some of the young people who have struggled to come out.
The way that MOVE presents their position on homosexuality publicly is misleading. If I had seen this section of Guidelines when I was becoming interested in MOVE at the age of 14 I never would have become as close as I did. I would likely have still supported MOVE politically and worked to help free the MOVE 9, but I wouldn't have been interested in MOVE's belief if I had access to these documents. There have always been whispers about MOVE's position on homosexuality, and they have never fully hidden it. But it has been downplayed and never expressed with anywhere near the force or vitriol as is seen in the section below.
I also have to recognize my own complicity in this matter, because once you get deep enough into MOVE the position on homosexuality becomes obvious, though it was never expressed to me, or any supporters I know of, in the way that it's expressed to MOVE children. For me, all of the things I loved about MOVE were so appealing that as I began to understand uncomfortable things like this I looked the other way. I also assuaged my own conscience by noting that publicly MOVE, and especially Pam Africa, have performed some incredible acts of solidarity with people within LGBTQ movements. This is very true but still doesn't take away from what was being taught to MOVE children, and can never make up for the fact that kids within MOVE grew up believing that if they were gay then they deserved to be killed (listen to this episode for more information on that). There's a lot to process here, and I'll be writing and reflecting on it in more depth very soon.
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