General News of Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Source: mynewsgh.com
2018-03-14
US Ambassador to Ghana Robert Jackson said he hopes Ghana legalises homosexuality in the next decade
The United States Ambassador to Ghana Robert P. Jackson over the weekend had his turn on GhanaWeb’s 21 Minutes with KKB in which he made some comments about Ghana and the issue of homosexuality.
The top US government envoy said homosexuality in Ghana is more pervasive than Ghanaians would want to believe.
Further to that, MYNEWSGH.com earlier reported him as saying that Ghanaians who are opposed to gay rights are being ‘myopic’; explaining that there was the need for those Ghanaians who oppose gay rights to study about the subject to understand it.
He, in the said interview also expressed optimism that when Ghanaians get to study and understand gay rights, they will be more tolerant of homosexuals.
Of all the issues the top diplomat spoke about in the 21-minute long interview, ranging from poor sanitation to good governance to Gitmo 2, to the fight against corruption and politics; none has grabbed the attention of Ghanaians than his remarks on homosexuality – not even his “Nana Addo more visionary than recent Ghanaian leaders” or his “Mahama did a lot for Ghana” comments come close to how deeply Ghanaians felt about the subject of homosexuality.
MYNEWSGH.com covered the reactions of Ghanaians on the subject, and can report thus:
A lot of Ghanaians- quite a lot of Ghanaians to be clear and for emphasis- felt deeply about his comments and many took to social media platforms facebook, twitter and whatsapp (groups), to express their views, majority, using uncharitably offensive language.
Many were of the opinion that the US Ambassador had no right to decide for Ghanaians what they should accept or reject, some pointing to the fact that the US President Mr Donald Trump is against gay rights and whether that made him “myopic” too.
Yet another group held the opinion that gay rights and homosexuality is “alien to our culture”, and “unacceptable” to Ghana under whatever circumstances, and if tied to aid, we did rather starve.
Please note, most of these opinions were expressed in plain, foul language.
There was yet another group who sought to spin politics on the Ambassador’s remarks, while a third, smaller group agreed that there was the need to grant gays their basic human rights as what two adults decide to do behind closed doors with their bodies should be none of anybody’s business, so far as it hurts no one and is not rape; they expressed hope that the U.S Ambassadors 10-year timeline will come to pass sooner than he envisaged. For this group of people, they were lumped together with the Ambassador and homosexuals in being at the receiving end of insults of all colours.
Many Ghanaians on social media also disputed the assertion of the US Ambassador that there are more gays than known and many more afraid to show up.
Please note, we are unable to bring you shots of the views we aggregated representing all of the above- as we usually would do- due to the extremely mind-blowing foul language used both on the person of the Diplomat expressing his opinion; the homosexuals, homosexuality and those whose comments support gay rights.