The Great Debate

Many Ghanaians, most of them clerics, have been pushing for 'a no to gay rights legislation' in recent times.

While we are aware about the need for the rights of citizens to be protected, regardless of their faiths and physiological inclinations, it would appear that under the circumstances we find ourselves in, homosexuals will not be entertained openly here.

That is the crux of the matter and the need to consider it critically and dispassionately cannot be marginalised.

It is interesting that the subject has been thrown into the public domain as though by design, when indeed the contrary is the case.

Be it as it may, we are happy that the subject is trending and could go virile very soon. This way every Ghanaian would be able to express their opinion about what has become a global issue.

With America giving it a thumbs-up and ready, it could in future be presenting it as a condition for aid, who knows. The need to state our position loud and clear must not be pushed to the backburner.

It has come from nowhere and amazingly gaining worrying and curious currency countrywide. It is as though government has showed a certain proclivity towards legalising the social practice in our statute books; and is meeting some resistance from various interest groups.

In their edition of yesterday a state newspaper broached the subject, opening the floodgates for opinions to flow. Various clerics from the two great faiths – Christianity and Islam – expectedly turned their back on it in a manner which left all those who read the story in no doubt that whoever seeks to advocate for gay rights in the country has an impossible uphill task to accomplish.

There is no way Ghanaians, most of them given their massive religiousness, would countenance gayism in their midst.

Gays should stop contemplating such impossibilities in our part of the world. We are not in a position to condemn any side of the raging debate in the public domain but can gauge and present the temperature reading of the subject; and that is exactly what we seek to do.

The clerics and traditional authorities have stated unequivocally that they would not admit gayism in the country. Must we even consider debating the subject, as some want to do now, when it is glaring that the subject cannot find space here?

In a country peopled by mostly church-goers and Muslims, the passion to kill gayism before it is even planted cannot be overemphasised. Even adherents of other faiths such as traditional African religion have no room for the aberration, if we can refer to it as such.

What advocates of a 'no way for gayism' in Ghana demand is that government states its position on the subject – a tall order which it would rather be silent on.

Incurring the wrath of development partners who consider such non-recognition as human rights breaches can be costly.