My two kobo on the Anti- gay law.

            Hellur! Hellur! Yes, yes, we missed you too. We apologize for the long and unexplained break. Now that we are back, it’s time to talk about something serious. I know this is getting cliché now with all the reactions to the recently passed anti-gay laws, but then you know we have to weigh in. hehe. I’m writing this as a reaction to our earlier post on this issue.

          There are many phenomenons in life that we don’t understand like why people are poor when money is just paper (at least I think it is) and why the bible says that if a woman is raped, she should marry her rapist (Deuteronomy 22:28) and when we don’t understand things, we make the choices as to whether or not we should apply them in our daily lives. The issue of homosexuality is quite a novel one in our society, it has existed in the shadows for a long time but it is only until recently that it was brought to the forefront. Let me start by saying that I am not an advocate for gay rights but I also cannot stand for the persecution of people who have committed no crime.

          The most common argument I have heard against this issue is that of religion. I am a Christian, I may not be the best of them but I do know that it is said that God loved the world, there is no proviso saying but apart from homosexuals. Whenever there’s an argument about homosexuals, the first thing we run to is the bible, but have we really ever sat back to look through what the bible says? Most verses that condemn homosexuality also condemn adultery, rape, lying, theft, extortion, sodomy etc (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Why haven’t laws been made to punish liars and sodomites and adulterers. The failure of a legal system begins where it starts to mix up morality with law. If we are convinced that the bible is against homosexuality, shouldn’t we leave it to God to punish for the things upon which he has made laws.

           If our legal system wants to decide that they are elected by God and therefore should make punishments for immorality; I think they should begin with strengthening the punishments for rapists and setting up measures to prevent it after which they should move on to adultery and then jail all the divorcees in Nigeria as the bible also frowns upon that. All those screaming that homosexuality is a sin should sit back and recall that they are sinners as well and God is the only Judge.

             Don’t we always talk about the fundamentality of our human rights, and doesn’t Section 42(2) of the CFRN 1999 explicitly state that “No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth”. Spending fourteen years behind bars sounds very much like deprivation to me or are we going to argue that homosexuality isn’t a circumstance of birth, because I’m sure no one will under normal circumstances subject themselves to the amount of unwarranted hate and discrimination that gay people receive.

            I was watching a compilation of the best X factor auditions the other day and there was this one about a boy whose parents kicked him out of the house on his 18^th birthday for being gay; his voice was OUTSTANDING! There are millions of people looking for healthy children after decades of marriage; I doubt they would be rejecting kids just because the boy turns out to be effeminate. I also heard something recently that made me reconsider my anti-gay stance; because we don’t understand how homosexuals live, we exaggerate it and make it seem like everything they do is gay, that they eat gay food and drink gay water and breathe gay air, most of the people we hate on are probably as confused about their feelings as we are about it and they don’t need our hate and discrimination.

         Now, I’m not saying I totally understand homosexuality or how people of the same sex could be affectionate towards each other, what I do know is this: not all gay people are evil, in fact I think most of the evil ones were destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah. Secondly, I’m sure people would ask me ‘ what would  you do if you had a gay child’, let me answer that right now, I don’t expect that to be an easy situation especially considering the society which we live in but I will love that child because he/she would be the one God created for me and I know God doesn’t make mistakes. Thirdly, I know that this law would only cause more havoc and make more hypocrites out of us.

        Finally, a few days ago I was on the fence on this issue but after reading Chimamanda's article and thinking long and hard I now know that I wouldn’t make anyone uncomfortable merely because he’s effeminate or because she doesn’t like boys. I’m going to love my neighbor, whether gay or straight, because I realize that life is tough enough on its own without us making it harder for people by judging them on things we don’t understand. I leave the final ruling on who is right or wrong to God to tell us on that day but until then, this law is Unconstitutional and downright unfair.



For a dissenting argument on this issue, go here