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Ghana’s Homosexuals want
recognition
25 August 2006-
Even though Ghanaians and the country's legal framework generally frown
on same sex, there are many Ghanaians who have been "clandestinely"
engaged in their sexual preference, but have now publicly announced
their desire to be recognised.
As their number
in the country keeps swelling, the president of Gay and Lesbian
Association of Ghana has revealed that the association has currently
been registering members including some who are in senior secondary
school or have just left school.
Already, there
are some top men and women in society, people with diverse professions
including politicians flirting with the gay fraternity, he disclosed.
“We have the
majority of gay men in Accra. During some of the small programmes we
organise, we get about 400 to 500 gays attending and when we have big
programmes we get thousands of people coming from other regions,” Prince
McDonald, the president of the association told Joy FM - a local radio
station in Accra on Thursday.
He noted
“There are a lot of people with this orientation when you move all over
Ghana. When you go to Kumasi there is a large population, when you go to
Sunyani, when you go to Techiman, in the North, in the Central, there
are whole lot of young men and old men, young women and old women who
are engaged in same sex attraction.”
McDonald (29)
says he has been a gay throughout his life. He mentioned some of the
societal constraints they encounter as inability to seek medical
attention with sexually transmitted infections and media criticism.
“Most people do
not have anyone to talk to or express that feeling to and that is the
problem”, he said.
“Most Ghanaians I
know, do not think about issues critically before they express their
sentiments. People think about the sexual part of it, it is not about
sex, it is about the attraction, it is about love, it is about the same
thing that goes on in heterosexual relationships and friendships."
Societal values
He called on
Ghanaians to accept gays and lesbians into the society because they are
human beings and they should be treated the same way as others would
wish to be treated.
“We have problems
with some things heterosexuals do, but we don’t complain about them, we
don’t fight over them.”
Professor Mansah
Prah, a sociologist and dean of social science at the University of Cape
Coast said: “What they are saying is very important and we should listen
to them if not for anything, but for the fact that they are also a group
that is vulnerable when it comes to HIV.”
For Apostle
Michael Ntumy, chairperson of the Church of Pentecost and chairperson of
the Ghana Pentecostal Council (GPC): “Rights have to be ordered
otherwise we would be living in a lawless society."
Meanwhile none of
the “ordinary people” ADM talked to agreed that gays and lesbians should
be accepted into the Ghanaian society.
“Brother,
majority of Ghanaians are religious and there is no true Christian or
Muslim who would tell you that being gay is good. Everybody just stands
up and says we want the right to do this and that.
"We heard about
the legalisation of prostitution in a country like Ghana and these
people also think they should be heard. Forget it,” Sampson Wiredu
groused darkly.
Mary Ama Mensah
said: “Please and please fellow Ghanaians, don’t let our dear country be
thrown into a satanic world. Why did God create Eve for Adam? These
people have no respect for our culture and religion, let those countries
practice their own thing and let us also protect our culture and
dignity, its simple as that."
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