By Chris Ihidero
This is the one article I hoped never to write. Somewhere inside of me I hoped that my country’s president would see through the hypocrisy of the sponsors of the bill that sought to basically criminalise a citizen’s right to choose his/her own sexuality, a choice that, when made by two consenting adults, puts no one in harm’s way in any way. I hoped in vain.
When this unfortunate bill was first talked about on the floor of the senate around 2006, I and a few other writers (Damola Awoyokun, Deji Toye, Tunde Aladese, Rotimi Babatunde, Akin Adesokan, Ropo Ewenla…) published a protest piece, pointing out the dangers of this sort of legislation. We had hoped that people close to the people behind the bill would help point them to what this sort of criminalization meant in a democracy and we hoped that other voices would help us scream that government had no business in the private affairs of consenting adults, as long nobody’s rights were being infringed upon. We hoped in vain.
Later, I wrote a piece which was published online and in a national newspaper. I titled it: Same Sex Marriage Bill, Homosexuality and Our Puritanical Pretenses. Many who read it wondered if I was gay and was about to emerge from the closet; many others told me exactly where I would burn in hell for being a gay supporter. I am not surprised by those reactions as, for once, the national assembly has actually passed a law many Nigerians support.
I do not know why President Jonathan chose to sign this bill into law; I do not know for a fact that he is merely distracting everyone from focusing on the many promises his government has failed to deliver on. The reality is that the law is here and where we could have chosen to show love, we have criminalised harmless choice and given hatred wings to fly.
It’s been fascinating listening to arguments on both sides of the divide. I have laughed hard at attempts at moralising where homosexuality is concerned. Homosexuality debases the moral fibre of society, we have been repeatedly informed over the past two weeks. It is a relic of colonialism and an attempt at neo-colonialism by these morally bankrupt oyinbo people who do not fear God, they scream. As if culture is static, rather than dynamic, they insist that homosexuality is unafrican. Not yet done, they inform us that by allowing homosexuality in our society, the human race shall go extinct in no time as we shall no longer reproduce, seeing that ‘Go ye, have heterosexual sex and multiply’ is what God sent us to the world to do. The last time I checked, Nigeria is constitutionally a secular state, not a religious one.
But the massive elephant in the room remains largely unaddressed.
Have you noticed how reactions to homosexuality in these parts are more aggressive towards gay men than lesbian women? Somehow, many people cannot understand why a man would rather desert the suppleness of a woman’s body and insert his penis in another mans anus. There’s just something ‘unmanly’ about it. Of course it can be understood that a woman could be with another woman; women are the weaker sex and such isn’t unexpected of weak people (for homosexuality is a weakness) and since women are weak, they can have our pitiful understanding. But a man? A whole man with another man? No way! Of course, nothing is said of anal sex in heterosexual relationships. That gay people fall in love, get heartbroken, kiss and cuddle like the rest of us is lost on those who had rather see them as morally debased sex starved animals.
If homosexual men did not have sex, we will not be having this discussion. The fear that if homosexuals get married, this will legitimize their sexual conduct is real and has led to this situation. We need to keep seeing them as an aberration.
Isn’t it rather ironic that this bill was passed by a senate filled with morally bankrupt people? Do you know of a single filthier gathering of Nigerians than the senate and house of representative? The question we should be asking is: how come the ‘immorality’ of homosexuals is more obscene to people whose conduct shows how little they care about the people they represent and how much they care about themselves? If homosexuality is sinful, what about corruption, greed and nepotism?
The danger many do not see here is the unending possibilities that the passing of this bill and the president’s assent brings forth. When you allow politicians access to private areas of citizens’ lives, they never stop. They have come for homosexuals, who’s next?
I am irreligious; love is my God. Wherever I find the opportunity to show love, I will not hold back, whether the person is gay, straight, bent or skewed. This is what Christ asked of me when He asked me to love my neighbour as myself.
Shalom.
