Homosexuality In Ghana - The Media's Fault

As a country, we have arrived at a time where, on the whole, we have accepted generally that homosexuality is not morally beneficial for our society. And as far as the edicts of the country is concerned, sexual activities between such people (esp. between man and man) is a crime and offenders are to be subjected to the full rigors of the law as stated in the Constitution.

Moreover, we have stood our ground even as outside forces tried to coerce our central administration into legalizing same sex relationships. However, Human Rights activists like Nana Oye Lithur, are seeing the country's stand as a violation of the fundamental human rights of the “gay” persons.

Despite this, more and more prominent men, church leaders, politicians and even media houses have come out to declare their stand against homosexuality and the move to legalize it in the country. However most of these same media houses (esp. TV stations), are spreading more than they are helping the fight against it. They show content with homosexual scenes and even some shows which are not conducive to the country's stand against the act. After this they then ironically hold panel discussions against homosexuality.

One of the most notorious culprits turns out to be Viasat One, one of the fairly new and most viewed stations in and around the Accra area. A show well known for playing a key role in the legalization of homosexuality in America is “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. This talk show, hosted by multi-millionaire “queen of talk show”, Oprah Winfrey, is aired twice a day from Monday to Friday and it was one of these episodes where a said “man of God” claimed “homosexuality was a special gift from God”.

Another show aired on the same station is America's Next Top Model (ANTM) hosted by Tyra Banks. One of the judges, Miss Jay Alexander is a man who makes no effort to hide his homosexuality even during the show. Contestants for the show too range widely from lesbians to more recently, a man, who had stated to play the feminine role in life.

In a country governed by morals, a country which has made its stand against homosexuality quite clear, I find it not a bit amusing that this shows and many other movies that preach homosexual liberty are shown on our TV screens. We seem to forget that these shows are oriented for countries where homosexuality has been legalized to its full effect not Ghana. Even some of our locally produced shows have taken up these acts and allow homosexuals to take up roles on our TV screens.

Enough said, I ask whether we do stand “against” or “for” homosexuality or are we just acting up and condoning the act secretly. We might as well just put up Gay Pride banners if we allow these suggestive contents to be aired on our TV screens.