Opinions of Monday, 1 March 2021

Columnist: Richard Ato Bosomtwi

LGBTQ+: An iceberg for national catastrophe

Homosexuality is a crime in most African countries Homosexuality is a crime in most African countries

There have been several stories of men having sexual intercourse with other men anally and women doing same with other women using their hands and other objects. These acts were once foreign in our society but are now an inimical testament of events within the Ghanaian society.

The issue of LGBTQ+ has been with us for almost a decade and successive governments, clergies and well meaning Ghanaians have stated their position against this group when it comes to the moral, legal and cultural values of our country.

However, the advocates for the people within the LGBTQ+ community think that the sexual preference and orientation of their members should be accommodated and accepted under the umbrella of human rights.
Nonetheless, article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations states that"
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

Which implies that no matter your rights, preferences and orientation,the general rights and freedom of the society override yours.(Let's however note that if LGBTQ+ is accepted and normalized in Ghana, soon, those fellows who also have sexual preference towards animals will come out to seek acceptance of their secret acts).
Furthermore, our indecisiveness as a nation on LGBTQ+ when it first raised its ugly head almost a decade ago has brought us here. Therefore, I suggest the following as the way forward.

1. Government needs to formulate strict legislations to specifically deal with LGBTQ+.

2. We must educate people on our firm convictions against the LGBTQ+ act within various schools, churches, mosques, traditional centers and the society at large.

3. Parents should accept the responsibility of offering proper sexual orientation to their wards and also monitor friends (whether male or female) who visit their wards at home.

4. The government through the ministry of information and communication should critically monitor the content of media houses and penalize those whose content promote LGBTQ+.

5. The national accreditation board and other respective government agents should carefully zoom their lens on the activities and sources of funding of NGOs within the country since some NGOs may be frontiers of LGBTQ+ campaigns.

I end with this quote from the bible which says: "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not allow anything to control me." (1 Corinthians 6:12 ISV).