The homosexuality question - Foh Amoaning, the bottom policeman

In Ghana, being an anti-gay campaigner is a rather cheap and easy way to fame. You would be assured of the support of majority of your church-going countrymen, while the gays and lesbians in the society who would normally be challenging you, are cowed into silence for fear of their dear lives. And so people like Mr Foh Amoaning take over our airwaves and spew garbage with ill-considered arguments scraped off the old beaten tract of sentimentality and homophobic bigotry, all aimed at attempting to police which hole a couple of consenting adults decide to explore for their sexual gratification in the privacy of their bedrooms.

I am not gay. I happen to live and work in a society where homosexuality is legalised, and increasingly, my job has come to involve often looking after pregnant women whose partners are female, or who have been hired by two men.

This is the same society a recent poll revealed seventy percent of Ghanaians if given the chance, would be all too happy to emigrate to. So really, Ghanaians do not want homosexuality in their backyard but would be all too willing to live and bring up their children in America or the UK where the practice is legalised. In the end, therefore, what matters to Ghanaians above all is whether they can make ends meet, whether their gutters would be cleaned, whether they can afford their hospital bills and rent and certainly not what two adults do in their bedroom.

And the argument about homosexuality not being a part of our culture is as bizarre as it is idiotic. Homosexuality has never been a part of the culture anywhere in the world. Indeed, even in countries where the practice is legalised, there are people who are still afraid to come out because of the pervading fear of “bottom policemen” like Foh Amoaning. And who gave us the Christianity and Islam some people use as the basis for their abhorrence of homosexuality?

Unlike us, some countries have grown up and come to the realisation, that a man has the right to dignity and fundamental human rights irrespective of race or sexual orientation and have made conscious efforts to rid themselves of tribal inclinations. Interestingly, similar tribal inclinations allowed some people elsewhere in the world to murder albinos for being witches.

So Mr Foh Amoaning could better use his talent in fighting paedophilia in Ghana for instance, so our little school girls could go to school and acquire knowledge rather than pregnancies. That would be a worthy cause. Or, perhaps, Mr Foh Amoaning could try being an anti-corruption campaigner in Ghana like Martin Amidu. That, is a job for real men. For he would be loathed by many, including our parliamentarians, chief executives and even some presidents. He would always live in fear of his life. But that is a war that needs more soldiers, rather than the tame one-sided battle against innocent people who choose a peculiar way of life.

Papa Appiah

Lexeve1@icloud.com