Martin Amidu
Government has officially given its blessing to homosexuals and lesbians in the country, saying that they have the rights to co-habit.
Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Martin Amidu, told journalists on Tuesday that the laws of Ghana only frowned on homosexuality when it involved a minor or when one partner was forced into a sexual act.
Mr. Amidu was clarifying Ghana’s official position on the issue of homosexuality, with some pastors threatening to tell their congregation to vote against any party that endorsed the practice.
The Attorney General explained that when two male adults agreed to have sex with each other in the privacy of their rooms, such a situation could not be described as illegal as the participants were at liberty.
Though Ghana is believed to have a vibrant gay community, no gay couple has ever been seen having sex in public.
The Justice Minister’s position on same sex left his audience perplexed.
But according to him, “the law does not follow you to see what you do, your house is your castle; your room is your castle, what you do there is no body’s business. It is only when you rape an adult by way of unnatural carnal knowledge that you become a subject of prosecution.”
The Attorney General’s statement explains why President Atta Mills was furious when a newspaper reported that he was against gays.
Just two days ago, Minister of Culture and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alex Asuman-Ahensan, beat a quick retreat when he said at a function at Saltpond in the Central region that government was against homosexuality.
A day after the publication, he came out publicly to say that the comments he made at Saltpond were his personal opinion and not that of President Mills or the NDC government.
Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has described the Justice Minister’s position on homosexuality as “illogical” and one that smacks of a “dead sense of morality.”
Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, was quoted by citifmonline yesterday to have argued that the consequences of what went on in the bedrooms of homosexuals affected the larger society and not just the homosexuals.
“I do not know where our country is going to. Its leaders who are going to lead the country are dead to all sense of morality. There is nothing ‘privacy’ about homosexuality because the effect affects everyone. So if a mother kills her child in her room, if a husband kills his wife in their room, it is the privacy of their room, why should the law then follow them?”
“This is illogical. In fact, it is sending wrong signals to those who are in it… There is no country in the world where there is no HIV/AIDS; most of these things were done in privacy and it is affecting the whole world so the argument is illogical and the argument does not help our country. We do not accept the argument,” Rev. Mantey said.
The subject of an upsurge in homosexuality in Ghana has had a huge media attention in recent times but the reports have largely centered on speculations as there have not been any statistics of evidential value to prove a surge in homosexual activities and how recent that surge has been or even what the new figures are.
Meanwhile, government has maintained an apparent state of indecision on what position to take on the subject.
The Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, in July, ordered the immediate arrest of all homosexuals in his region. He tasked the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and all security agencies to smoke out persons suspected to be engaging in homosexuality.
He also enlisted the services of landlords and tenants to provide reliable information which would lead to the arrest of homosexuals.
In the same month of July, the Christian Council of Ghana held a press conference to condemn the practice of homosexuality and asked government not to pass it into law.
The Council described homosexuality as “detestable and abominable act” and said that if passed into law in Ghana, the country would incur the wrath of God “and the consequences will be unbearable”.
Though Ghanaian customs and traditions frown on homosexuality, the country is believed to have a vibrant gays and lesbians’ community which operates clandestinely.
It is however not certain if there has actually been a call for the legalization of same sex marriages in Ghana.
By Halifax Ansah-Addo