Dr. Aubrey Levin, aka the Dr. Josef Mengele of apartheid South Africa, may have finally run afoul of the law.
He was arrested in Canada last week for allegedly abusing a Canadian man at his practice. It seems that old habits die hard. “Doctor Shock,” as he was called back in the old days, used to torture gay and lesbian military personnel to try and turn them straight. Amazingly enough, the folks at your local friendly neighborhood “ex-gay” ministry have been trying to that for decades, too – and haven’t been having much success either. Most intelligent people already know that it is nigh impossible to “straighten” what was made “skew” in the first place, to paraphrase an Afrikanerism. For those not smart enough to bluff their way out of Levin’s grasp, (shouting “Praise the Lord, I’m healed!”) he allegedly performed forcible sex-changes on them – and according to some sources, many of these were intentionally botched.
Only one thing can define such actions to me – an intense hatred.
I managed to just avoid him in my own term in the South African Army – luckily he had already left by then. I did my whole transition in the Army. It could have worked out very differently if he were still there of course. As it was, I picked up lots of horrific tales from “family” who had been there – or still worked in the military medical environment, of days gone by. All told me how lucky I was to have missed them.
There is one other question that bothers me – Levin appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the early 1990’s – WHY was he not charged and punished for his heinous crimes then? Why was he allowed to go free and carry on with his life at the expense of justice and the lives of more innocent people?
Was it because he only committed these alleged crimes against white people?
Was it because he only committed crimes against gay and transgender people?
Why did Canada allow this vicious criminal who destroyed the lives of upwards of 900 people to emigrate into its respectable medical profession – and apparently to continue to spread his ugliness there?
Was it because Canada still doesn’t place much value on the lives of its own GBTIQ citizens – and transgender people have no legal protections and are still erroneously classified as “mentally ill” and have to jump through all kinds of unreasonable hoops and hurdles just to get their gender reassignment done?
I wonder how many lives he has destroyed so far in Canada?
I wonder what it would take for the University of Pretoria to strip this man of his doctorate? Public shame in the media? I wonder – because clearly the knowledge of 900 hundred ruined gay, lesbian, bi and transgender lives wasn’t enough yet.
I know of people in SA and elsewhere who are still calling their relatives and friends to tell them how drunk they are from celebrating that this creature has been arrested in Canada for his alleged crimes.
All his crimes? No, just one – his alleged abuse of a 36-year-old Canadian male patient. What about the 900 or so forced sex-changes during his time as OC of 1 Military Hospital? And all the torture and experiments strikingly similar to the activities of those Nazi mad scientists who experimented on their captives? What about all those broken people who committed suicide because of what he did to them?
I would be inclined to celebrate too, if I believed for a moment that the charge in Canada was enough to see that he would never see daylight again or breathe free air again.
I too would celebrate if I thought he would actually face justice for all the deaths, misery and injury he is directly responsible for. Allegedly, of course.
I could think of a good reward for Levin – the Mengele of Apartheid South Africa – hand him over to those he wronged – and give them carte blanche.
Is there any justice out there for people like us?
Let’s see what the Canadians do with him.
I think we should all be contacting the Canadian Embassy and Canadian advocacy groups to demand justice and to raise awareness of just what that man has been up to – both in South Africa and in Canada.
References:
A Gender Variance Who’s Who
News24.com
Top 10 Unethical Psychological Experiments
Tales of ‘gay-fixing’ doctor’s dagga past
Christina Engela is a South African transgender woman and a volunteer human‚Äërights activist. She is a member of the board of the South African Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation(SA GLAAD), and president of the Eastern Cape Gay & Lesbian Association (ECGLA). She is also active in local politics.
