Gays are abnormal but must be tolerated - Sekou

Dr. Sekou Nkurmah, last son of Ghana's first President, has told XYZ News he does not believe gays in Ghana should be "prosecuted" though he agrees the practice is "abnormal" and offensive to Ghanaian culture.

He said Ghana as a society must however “not accept what is wrong” as far as the country’s cultural values are concerned but nonetheless urges tolerance saying: “It does not mean people who are homosexuals should be prosecuted and so on; I think our society should find a way to addressing this problem”.

“I think as human beings we need to obviously tolerate others and their ways and so on, but that does not mean that as a society we should accept what we think is wrong,” Dr. Nkrumah noted.

Dr. Nkrumah, who says “for now the door is closed on homosexuality and homosexual tolerance” in Ghana however said: “I’m not too sure those of us who are straight, ‘let’s put it that way’, or ‘normal’ would also condemn others because we have to be clear exactly how that person becomes homosexual or behaves in that abnormal way”.

The gay rights debate intermittently erupts and ebbs in Ghana with every passing topical local or international gay issue which impinges on Ghana.

Recently, some Clergy in Ghana condemned South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu for saying he would prefer hell to an anti-gay heaven.

A recent UN campaign to urge tolerance for gays in member countries as well as British Premier David Cameron’s vow to export gay rights across the world resuscitated the debate in Ghana.

Ghana’s criminal code is also grey on the criminality of homosexuality.

The code clearly describes as criminal, “unnatural carnal knowledge” but that provision has been debated and interpreted differently by different legal brains as to whether it applies to homosexuals.

Dr. Nkrumah therefore says it is important Ghana’s laws are made clear on the matter.