Ghana, the gay lobby and the Scottish Parliament

By George Sydney Abugri

On which part of our troubled planet do men with beards wear skirts? Scotland? That is dead right for all score points on offer. It is unsurprising then that Members of Parliament (MPs) of that country stormed out of the chamber of the House last week when our President, John Mahama, who was on a visit to the country, entered the House to address them.

Their beef, mutton and grilled pork as well, if you will? Homosexual activity is a criminal offence in Ghana and the country has been reported to condone attacks on lesbians and homosexuals.

Ghana has in recent times come under attack by some of our other friends and development partners for our alleged hostility towards and attacks on gay people, with some of them reportedly threatening to withhold development support unless we let homosexuals and lesbians indulge in their “sexual preferences”.

The Guardian newspaper of the UK recently reported the existence in Ghana of a group established to help defend and protect the rights of lesbians and homosexuals in the country. The group, which describes itself as a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group, goes by the name Solace Brothers Foundation.

The group’s leader agreed to an interview with the Guardian only on condition that the group’s source of funding would not be disclosed by that paper.

The first paragraphs of the interview transcript opened with the head of Solace Foundation who is named only as Abu, storming a police station in Accra where he meets police officers and succeeds in securing the release of two lesbians who were attacked by a mob and then arrested by the police while holding a “ a wedding ceremony.”

In the course of the interview, the leader and founder of the group says that court judges in Ghana who handle such cases are “very homophobic.” He adds that “even though we {pro-gay group} have human rights lawyers who support us, it is generally very hard to get support from other lawyers.”

The group, which began operating in the country in 2012, seems to be well-funded and has already trained agents across the country on how to seek security and protection for the rights of gay people in their communities with the help of human rights lawyers and the police.

The gay rights activists have got it all wrong of course: The human rights referred to in the UN Charter of Human Rights pertain to natural rights. There is nothing like the right to do wrong. What is unnatural cannot be a right, can it?

Natural Law is a concept which holds that there is inherent in nature, a set of laws created by God to which all humans must conform. These laws are considered from the point of view of common sense, to be so self-evident that they are easily observed by everyone.

A study of the male and female reproductive systems in particular should make it obvious to every sane person that their natural function is to come together for the purpose of procreation. A physical act in which an anatomical orifice meant for excreting body waste is used as a sexual organ and which sexual act does not lead to procreation, is wrong.

It is physiologically weird and physically repulsive to the majority of people. Homosexual activity is an offence in the criminal codes of most countries, including Ghana. There is no culture on earth from Australia and Europe through Africa and Asia to the Americas where homosexuality is not frowned upon.

The fact that there is always a “wife” and “husband” in every so-called lesbian and homosexual marriage can only mean that this natural law cannot be defied by unnatural sexual preferences.

For the sake of doubt, both the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible are replete with God’s warning against homosexuality. The numerous biblical admonitions are summarised in Leviticus 18: 22: “A man shall not lie with a man as with a woman.”

Society and medical science have a responsibility to trace the causes. One impediment to managing the issue of homosexuality and lesbianism is the staunch refusal of gays and lesbians to accept or acknowledge that their so-called sexual preferences are unnatural and that they need psychological help with sexual re-orientation and adjustment. Matters have not been helped by anti-gay activists who insist on treating homosexuals and lesbians as social outcasts whose sexual orientation should be treated with disdain and attacked and uprooted or at best countered with hostility.

Not unsurprisingly, gay and lesbian activists have always responded with counter-arguments of their own which attack the subjectivity of the arguments of many anti-gay activists.

Attempts by some scholars to bring the issue of homosexuality and lesbianism into a more informed perspective have sometimes been subjective and grounded more on personal experience and observation than scientific, moral and spiritual perspectives.

One of the best examples is probably the case of Tim LaHaye who wrote the book “Unhappy gays”. Gay activist Roger Williams begins his condemnation of the book with the quoted assertions that "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" and that "what can be asserted without proof {the arguments against homosexuality} can be dismissed without proof".

Williams describes most of the evidence regarding the unnaturalness of homosexuality in LaHaye’s book, as “outdated psycho-babble that had been debunked by scientists and sociologists long before LaHaye wrote his book”

He also accuses LaHaye of sweeping generalisations which have led him to his conclusions about homosexuals: Williams describes as a lie and mere fantasy and demands supporting evidence, the claim by LaHaye that most homosexuals are unhappy.

Williams’ attack on LaHaye’s books takes up volumes of space, but the thrust of it is that the book “misrepresents what homosexuals do and how they live and based upon those lies and those errors, LaHaye makes un-proven, unsubstantiated claims of how to become a non-homosexual.”

As can be seen then, getting homosexuals and lesbians to accept that they need psychological help is easier said than done. That is the crux of the issue.

Website: www.sydneyabugri.com/Web