A caller into Joy FM’s Super Morning Show who said he is gay says the strident criticisms in Ghana against homosexuality are hypocritical because some of the critics are themselves gay.
Edwin, not his real name, says he is incensed at how speaker after speaker has denigrated them [gays] following President Akufo-Addo’s interview with Aljazeera on Sunday.
In that interview, the president said although legalising homosexuality was not on his government’s agenda, the law could be changed if enough pressure is brought to bear.
“This is a social, cultural issue, I don’t believe that in Ghana so far, a sufficiently strong coalition has emerged which is having that impact on public opinion that will say ‘change it, let’s now have a new paradigm in Ghana’.
“At the moment, I don’t feel, I don’t see that in Ghana there is that strong current of opinion that is saying that is something we need to deal with. It is not so far a matter that is on the agenda,” the president told Aljazeera’s Jane Dutton.
The Christian Council of Ghana, obviously unimpressed by the president’s comments, in a swift response, said there was no way homosexuality could be ligalised in Ghana.
Its General Secretary Rev. Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong said no amount of pressure will change their stance because homosexuality is against the country’s social and cultural values.
But the conversation did not end there, on Monday on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, private legal practitioner Moses Foh-Amoaning did not only critique the president’s comments but also criticized those who seem to be in favour of a legalisation.
He said the problem is purely a psychiatric problem and the persons suffering from it should be given the needed attention rather than elevating it to a point of legalization.
“The difficulty is the elevation of what is clearly a psychiatric problem. If all of us became homosexuals, how would we protect the fundamental human right which is the right to life,” he queried.
But this comment together with the many others he made on the show seemed to have angered Edwin, who called into the show expressing his displeasure.
His problem was not with Mr Foh-Amoaning alone, but all persons whose comments on the issue seem to portray gays as non-human for their sexual preference.
Edwin says he is proud to be gay and like any other person in the country, they have rights and deserve to be treated properly.
“It is my fantasy, I like eating fufu, you like eating waakye, do I come to tell you your waakye is nasty and is against my fufu that I like? We also have rights.
“What you like will be different from what another person likes, that doesn’t mean what they like is wrong,” Edwin queried.
When reminded that the laws of the country are against unnatural carnal knowledge, he said as long as their sexual preference does not harm any other person, the criticisms are unfounded.
For him, liking or wanting to be with other men is “a personal decision” and no one should stop him from making that preference.
