Wisdom K. Mprah

A hotly debated and controversial topic in town is homosexual sex. Questions have been raised about the moral aptness of homosexual sex and if those who practice it should be accorded equal rights as heterosexuals. My position is that heterosexuals as well as homosexuals have equal sexual rights that must be upheld and respected. This is not insanity! Reasons so far cited against homosexual do not make sense to any objective and critical minded person. I discuss a few of these arguments in this article.

It is argued that homosexual sex is morally abhorrent to the majority: This argument is based on popular opinion, which, in my opinion, does not make sense at all. The reasoning is based on mere prejudice and circular reasoning. One thing is for sure —the majority is not always right. History of such examples abound in all societies; countless in Ghana. If the majority was always right, we would have been worshipping the goddess Diana, who was worshipped by millions many years before Christ. Racism and other discriminatory attitudes and thoughts such as those against blacks in South Africa and the USA would not have been abolished. Furthermore, the so-called majority have no case whatsoever because no one is forcing them to associate with homosexual sex, neither is homosexual sex having any direct adverse effect on them. Remember that the minority also have rights that must be upheld, and mere popular opinion does not make such rights illegal.

Religion and the scriptures cannot be the basis for denying homosexuals their rights. The right of association and to profess one’s true self is a fundamental human right, enshrined in the constitution of Ghana. Let’s assume a gay person does not believe in the Bible. He doesn’t believe in any of the scriptures either. Maybe he is even an atheist. That is no one’s business; these are rights guaranteed by the constitution. No one has the right to force a gay person to conform to laws and beliefs of an association he doesn’t belong to. That homosexual sex is unnatural and even animals won’t practice it. This kind of reasoning is also fundamentally flawed. It is based on a presumed norm or standard, which in turn, is based on our binary conception of the normal and abnormal. But what is normal and who has the right to determine it, is an issue the remains unresolved? Even if it is true that animals won’t practice it, only prejudiced minds will see sense in this argument. It is a very bad analogy and shows how desperate we are in our attempt to deny homosexuals their natural rights. Why should we (humans) stop engaging in activity merely because animals do not engage in such an activity? Humans engage in sexual activities for a variety of reasons, so while animals engage in sex mainly for procreation, should humans do it exclusively for procreation? But it is a fact that same-sex behavior has been seen in nearly all animals, so homosexuals aren’t sexual “deviants” after all. In fact, it is very disheartening to see people likening their fellow humans to animals simply because they are in a behavior which is subjectively considered repulsive.

That homosexual sex is not Ghanaian can’t be true; what may not be Ghanaian is homophobia. Homosexual sex is practiced in all cultures including Africa. A little honesty on the part of Ghana scholars will settle this matter. I am not implying homosexual sex is accepted it our culture, but it was never imported. Homosexual sex existed in Ghanaian cultures, but Ghanaians had their own ways of dealing with sexual offences, including homosexual sex; the kind of homophobic behavior we are exhibiting is rather not Ghanaian.

It is thought that homosexual sex (specifically, anal sex) has health implications because the rectum is not meant for sex. Assuming this is true and we are concerned about people’s health, we better go after the apio sellers and drinkers. That has worse health implications and consequences on the nation than anything. The health implications of anal sex, if any, do not come near to what apio causes. But the truth is that, the health implications of homosexual sex may just be the same as heterosexual sex.

We have always behaved as if everything about homosexual sex is bad and everything about heterosexual sex is good. But heterosexuals have engaged in all kinds of sexual activities; anal sex, oral sex, machismo-sadistic, etc. Heterosexuals also cause sexual harm such as rape, which is more cruel and dangerous than consensual homosexual sex.

One thing that has not been cleared in the debate on homosexual sex is whether our problem is with sexual relations between people of the same sex or anal sex per se? I ask this question because there are guys who have anal sex with women. Is that also offensive to the majority? And what does our archaic criminal code say about it?

Whether we like it or not, the homosexuality has been with us and will not stop because of laws. The fact that the scriptures made references to it suggests homosexual sex is as old as creation. The earlier we repeal our archaic criminal code and recondition on minds for them, the better for us. For, homosexuals don’t need any help because they do not have any problems. Perhaps, we need help because we see problems with people who have none—a form of psychosis.