So the first gay nuptials have taken place, and the world
waits with bated breath to see if Armageddon will be triggered in the next few
days as punishment for man ( and woman) committing this awful
"crime". The departure on April 3rd of Brendan Eich, CEO of Firefox owner Mozilla, following his public opposition to Gay marriage won't qualify for Armageddon status but does cause raised eyebrows over the way the wind is blowing now.
I'm originally from Ghana, and the opinion forming, opinion
leading middle classes there like many other West African countries in post-colonial
times are quietly homophobic. Forget the fact that many prominent families have
had un-outed but very well-known gay members over the years. Of course those
were often the families that sent their kids to English public schools
including Eton and the likes. Some went to prestigious Uni's like Oxford,
Cambridge, Harvard and MIT. Back in Ghana it's convenient to blame the perceived
"affliction" of being gay on extended exposure to decadent white
European and Western ways.
The double standard in this is horrendous. In
traditional African society, people who were gay were viewed more as
eccentrics, something outside the norm but in no way toxic to society. It was
the Christian missionaries who imposed western originated homophobia on the
colonised through their influence on the educated upper classes of the
colonised people. The incredible irony lies in the fact that an imported
religion, imposed an imported set of foreign values, which having taken root,
the exporters (western politicians) are now trying to expunge from African
society. This is causing deep resentment in the latter, for much like the
organised practice of Christianity, it seems many Africans are more into
homophobia today than the Western colonisers who first introduced it to
them. Just take a look at the draconian anti-gay legislation recently
passed in Nigeria and Uganda, with long jail terms for homosexual activity, and
you will see what I mean.
I like girls! Wild horses would not cause me to pursue
men in the same way as I pursue women. My sexuality is too fundamental to my
life to be parleyed or mortgaged for social convenience or approval. This is
just like my desire for dignity or respect among my peers for example, or the
need for fair play in all affairs. Nothing on earth would make me give up these
aspirations, so why on earth would I expect a gay or lesbian individual to give
up their legitimate yearnings? And no matter how gay another is, that in itself
won’t change my feelings about girls! So long as they don't try to force me to
change my orientation, interfering with my sense of myself, others can be as gay, lesbian or indeed straight as they like. To each their own. Live and let
live. I ask for gay and lesbian folk nothing more than I demand for myself as a
straight person.
So I wish them all good luck in their marriages and long
term relationships. The real challenge there is not to cause heartache for
their special, chosen ones. Now that is another issue, altogether.
