Ghanaian musician and activist, Deborah Vanessa, also known as Sister Derby, has blamed religion for what she terms as hate and confusion directed towards LGBTQ people.

Speaking in a recent interview on YFM, Sister Derby said that many individuals have lost the ability to think independently due to religion.

“To me, the root of all this confusion and hate—this kind of thing makes us hate each other—is religion. Religion is what everybody uses to decide what they are going to do.

“Most of us are not used to thinking for ourselves. We follow what someone else has said, and unfortunately, the majority of people are also following what they've read in a book,” she said.

She called for individuals to educate themselves, not just through formal methods but to sensitise themselves on the existence of humans who are different from them.

“All those things are problematic. At least you try to educate yourself. It's not about going to school; it's about meeting the people. Oral learning. Physical learning, experiencing, talking to them, and understanding where they are coming from.

“But you can't tell me that at such an age, you don't know or can't see that there are different types of humans in the world,” she said.

Sister Derby compared the plight of LGBT people in Ghana to that of people living with albinism and victims of domestic abuse.

“People with albinism have been oppressed before. They are still killing them and cutting their limbs in parts of Africa.

“But we fought; people like us fought for people like them. And black women are still being oppressed. Black men are still being oppressed in the world. Palestinian people are still being oppressed in the world.

“So you are just adding gay people to that? It's the same kind of oppression. That's what I try to explain to people. It's disappointing,” she said.

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