Humanist Association of Ghana Decries Homophobia

Following the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) which makes same-sex marriage legal for all people in that country, a heated debate on homosexuality and gay rights has been re-ignited, especially on social media. In Ghana, the voices that have appeared in mainstream media have been condemning and/or ridiculing the SCOTUS ruling. Some sections of the Ghanaian public - and this is the majority - are again calling for an unambiguous law making any display of affection, be it in public or private, between persons of the same gender illegal as is the case in Nigeria and Uganda.

In the midst of this, the Daily Guide newspaper has published a news item of a homophobic group that is brutalizing people to death. The story clearly gloats in the attack on suspected lesbians, goading homophobes to their inhumane attacks on people whose only crime seems to be that they dared have sex. It is shameful enough that humans are being clubbed to death. It's repugnant to our reason and moral sense that the media, and a newspaper with a large circulation like the Daily Guide, which should be leading a campaign for the rights of all people irrespective of whom they are and their sexual orientation, is rather gloating in the brutality being meted on gay people in our society. To make matters worse, it seems that the story was concocted to encourage people into anti-gay sentiments and to stoke violence specifically targeting suspected homosexuals. Background checks tell that no such lesbian EQ group exists. That there has not been any known attack on two persons of the same gender accused of having sex in La in the past few weeks. And no reports of any person so brutally beaten that they died during treatment at the hospital. This is not just professional dishonesty and recklessness, it is shameful!

In 2014, there were reports in the media of an attack on a group of merrymakers in Teshie suspected to be lesbians. According to the reports, the attackers suspected that the party was an engagement ceremony for a lesbian couple. The party was volleyed with a nasty combination of human excreta and stones. In the wake of that, some youth in the community came together to form an anti-gay group avowed to wiping out homosexuality from Teshie.

An anti-gay poster in Teshie threatening dire consequences for homosexuals.

Again, last year there were reports of homophobia-inspired acts of vandalism in St Paul's Senior High School in Denu. It is reported that students in that school sighted two of their mates (it is an all-boys school) in a compromising sexual position. The students, accusing school authorities of doing next to nothing, and frustrated from this perceived failure to penalize their mates previously caught in similar acts, decided to take matters into their own hands on this occasion. In the ensuing mêlée, in which mostly teenage students, were pitched against school authorities, and students were causing commotion, school authorities called in the police. The police arrived armed with live cartridge. Shots were fired. One student (not one of the pair allegedly caught in a homosexual act) was hit by a bullet. He died in hospital. Some other students sustained various degrees of injuries.

These are just two instances from a host of others in which homophobia has brought incalculable suffering to people, some not even gay themselves. Gay people suffer in our communities daily. Scores of them. Of the unquantifiable emotional strain that comes from being treated as pariah in the societies in which they live. Of being blackmailed and humiliated in church auditoriums where they are prayed over as part of a curing ritual. Of hundreds of hours of productive labour time wasted in so-called counselling and curing sessions conducted by charlatans. ( We know today that the so-called gay therapy sessions are, were and have always been a sham! ). Of gay people being put under social pressure to marry persons of the opposite sex. Of being lured into dens of homophobic bigots and beaten. Of being seduced, lured, blackmailed and then robbed and fleeced of their properties by straight people. Of gay people in our communities committing suicides because they do not have the support of family and friends, and have come to see death as blissful escape from their persecution. Of a national chief psychiatrist, who for some bizzare reasons, clings to the long-debunked idea that homosexuality is a psychological abnormality.

We, at the Humanist Association of Ghana (HAG) in clearest terms:

1. Condemn the dehumanizing treatment of gay people in our society. It is, to say the least, embarrassing that in 2015 we treat productive members of our society whose sexual orientation isn't mainstream with the courtesy afforded the carcass of rabid dogs. That a postcolonial African society will suffer any section of it's members to humiliation, dehumanisation, violence and even death based on their sexual orientation is bizarre. Even more so, if you consider that precolonial African societies were often very tolerant of gay people and in some societies, they were elevated to divine status.

We, at HAG, stand in solidarity with members of Ghana's LGBTQ community. We acknowledge their humanity and their rights to live free of intimidation. We know that the idea that homosexuality is a Western import is a myth, and more importantly that homosexuality is human and what is inhuman is the lack of compassion shown towards the LGBTQ community. Tons of research data and anthropological work inform that same-sex behaviour existed in precolonial and pre-Islamic sub-Saharan Africa. That the wave of homophobia currently sweeping our country and large parts of the African continent is the result of the works of bigoted homophobic Judaeo-Christian missionaries in Africa.

2. Decry the media's stoking of homophobia, rather than upholding human rights and providing sound information that will educate and inform the public. That under no circumstances shall the media be used to incite civil violence against any section of the public. That our media houses be up to the task in reporting civic matters, providing well-researched information to the public.

The current atmosphere in which some media houses are stoking the flames in setting a homophobic agenda for this country is also shameful. We are of the view that our media can do better. We are of the view that the media in partnership with the Humanist Association of Ghana and other stakeholders can set a positive agenda for this country. A positive agenda in which tolerance, respect for dissident views, freedom and peace exist. A positive agenda where we will not be fooled into thinking that humiliation, intimidation, threats of brutality, persecution, and beatings will resolve social issues. A positive agenda in which it is the soundness, validity, truth and humaneness of our argument and not our personal moral or religious stance which shall be the basis of social morals and laws.

3. Condemn the acts violence being perpetuated against gay people in our society.

4. Decry the prevailing social perception of homosexuality as a vice - a social scourge that must be purged out rather than an expression of free love. Love, being one of the most fulfilling experiences of human existence, it is cruel and oppressive to deny any human such feeling on the basis of any of the poorly thought-out and/or misinformed arguments against homosexuality and gay rights.

Homophobia is largely bred from a lack of understanding or ignorance of the scientific evidence regarding human sexuality. It is fueled by myths about homosexuality, superstitions, fundamentalist intolerance and bigotry on the part of heterosexual people. Put together, this is a toxic mix. It breeds the lack of compassion and the inhumanity we are witnessing today.

The Humanist Association of Ghana wishes to call for tolerance and respect for human rights. We call for the right of gay people to live free, to be happy and to love in our society.

The constitution of the Republic of Ghana is either silent or ambiguous at best on the matter of homosexuality. While we hope for a future legislation which will clear current ambiguities (hopefully, in favor of making same-sex relationships a non-issue and illegalising unfair treatment of gay people) let us not indulge the folly of battering each other and spilling the innocent blood of kith and kin.

Humanist Association of Ghana

Accra

ghanahumanists@gmail.com

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