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Gay Marriage and African Politics
Leo Igwe
Butterflies and Wheels
Posted: Feb 26, 2012
I condemn in no uncertain terms the recent passage by the Nigerian Senate of the the anti-gay marriage bill. The passage of this bill once again demonstrates how disconnected Nigerian politicians and lawmakers are from the realities of the 21st century. It has confirmed that our lawmakers indeed prefer to fiddle while our social, political and economic house, called Nigeria, burns.
Otherwise how does one explain the relevance of this bill at a time when Nigeria has become almost a failed state due to terrorist attacks, sectarian violence, corruption, poverty, diseases, abuse of office, tribalism and nepotism, misguided politics and mistaken sense of statecraft?
The passage of this bill has shown clearly how misplaced our priorities are, or better, how misplaced the priorities of those who claim to lead this country are. Our Senators should answer this question clearly: How does an anti gay marriage bill contribute to the greatest good of the greatest number of Nigerians?
Does this bill put food on their table or money in their pocket? The answer is: No. Does it provide them jobs? No. Does it enhance their much needed security and peaceful coexistence? No. Does it improve the standard of education in the country? No. Does it make Nigerian parents more responsible in terms of child support, upbringing and other family responsibilities? No. Does it improve the love and harmony in homes and communities across the country? No. Will this bill improve trust in marriages and relationships in Nigeria? No. Will it in any way strengthen the much talked-about marriage institution or family values? No. Can the Senators tell me the practical, political, moral relevance of this bill, except to legislate and institutionalize hatred and persecution of minorities, gay cleansing, moral hypocrisy and inquisition?
The true test of a democracy is not how it panders to the so called will (real or imagined) of the majority but how it treats and respects its minority. The test of a society’s humanity is how it protects and defends vulnerable members of the population.
And with this bill, has the Nigerian democracy and society failed this test? The answer is an unequivocal ‘Yes’.
This anti gay marriage bill is a clear indictment of our sense of common humanity and our commitment to human rights principles as a people and as a nation. The state cannot legislate when it comes to sexual relationships among consenting adults. The politicians and lawmakers cannot dictate for adults whom to relate with. Lawmakers have no business in the bedroom of adults.
For me this anti gay marriage bill is another pointer to where we have chosen to go as a nation – backward. Today the global trend is to un-ban, not to ban gay marriage.
Yes, the Senate vote to ban gay marriage is another indication of how our politicians have refused to confront our real challenges and to tackle and address our real, urgent and pressing problems as a nation and as a people. Instead our lawmakers prefer to pursue shadows and to engage in wasteful debates and counter-productive legislation. Yes, I want to reiterate that the whole idea of debating and passing a bill against gay marriage which has been going on since 2006 is a waste of our limited legislative resources, a huge distraction from more pressing issues, and a mark of our warped sense of politics and lawmaking. In fact it is an abuse of Nigeria’s legislative space. The obsession with homophobia among our lawmakers is unwarranted and uncalled for. It is rather an indication of political futility and emptiness, lack of vision, and failure to focus politically expedient programs for nation building and good governance.
I still want to know from our Senators and all those clamouring for an anti gay marriage legislation the rationale behind such a bill in a country where homosexuality is a crime. Can any gay marriage act or pact legally stand in a situation where homosexuality is illegal? The answer is NO. So why do our Senators think we need an anti gay marriage legislation at this time?. Today as we all know most countries are striving to make their laws compatible, not in conflict, with human rights. They are either reviewing, amending or repealing laws like those against homosexuality and blasphemy and for the death penalty, which are not in line with human rights, or introducing new laws that are in accordance with human rights.
And instead of moving forward with these countries and working towards repealing obnoxious laws, our politicians and lawmakers prefer to move backward by tightening the laws against homosexuality on the basis of religious and fanatical sentiments, and an ill-defined sense of African culture and tradition. Culture is not static. Culture is diverse and dynamic. There were acts, norms and habits deemed culturally unacceptable centuries ago but which are commonplace cultural practices today. Those who are saying that respecting people with homosexual orientation is unAfrican are really misrepresenting the African culture. If there is anything history tells us it is that Africans have been traditionally tolerant of people with same-sexual orientation prior to the introduction of criminal provisions based on the alien religions of Christianity and Islam. African politicians and lawmakers should make African traditions compatible with human rights. Unfortunately, the anti gay marriage bill entrenches and legalizes homophobia not human rights.
Meanwhile, there has been some vague reference to the recent threat by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron who, at the recent meeting of the Commonwealth, moved to cut add cut to countries that do not reform legislations banning homosexuality. Some have interpreted the statement as an attempt by the UK to impose its values on the rest of the world. I don’t think this is the case. Britain is a democratic country where the people’s voices and opinions matter.
I believe that the so-called threat was a reflection of the voices and wishes of the British people. Britain has decriminalized homosexuality and made significant progress in the protection of the rights of gay people. The British government is simply saying that they cannot be protecting the rights of homosexual persons and also be providing aid or financial assistance to countries where the same people, who are protected under British law, are persecuted or treated as criminals. No country, even Nigeria, would agree to provide aid or assistance to countries where black people are treated as criminals or thrown into jail because of the colour of their skin. How do we then expect Britain to extend aid to countries that persecute and legislate against individuals based on their sexual orientation? But this is a simple logic which the homophobia of many African politicians and lawmakers cannot allow them to understand or appreciate.
Leo Igwe, as a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, has bravely worked for human rights in West Africa. He is presently enrolled in a three year research programme on “Witchcraft accusations in Africa” at the University of Bayreuth, in Germany.
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Uganda, having the strictest anti-gay policies, is also the African country at the forefront of reducing the catastrophic AIDS plague. Congratulations to Nigeria for preserving civilized society. Hopefully, they too will begin to see relief from this very disease proliferating behavior. Man did not evolve due to cave man sexual behaviors but rather due to the established norms of society. Doing otherwise is going backwards. Homosexuality is a behavior; not a people - and a fruitless and potentially deadly one.
Nigeria’s human rights record is poor and government officials at all level continue to commit serious abuses. The nation faces widespread strife and sectarian violence, a vast array of health issues, shockingly low education rates, and houses huge networks of organized crime, drug trafficking, economics/trade fraud, corruption, political violence, and piracy. And now they’ve passed an ‘Anti-Gay Marriage Bill’ - I’d reason that this Nigerian society has proven itself incapable of handling the most basic responsibilities, and has, in fact, proven itself to be consistently moving backwards! Targeting the homosexual community for violence and discrimination is not the answer to their problems… We need to find a way to put an end to these atrocities and bring these people into the 21st century and end this regressive, offensive behavior. In the meantime, we need human rights groups to intervene and provide protection for the individuals affected by this legislation!
@Skip Barrow - HIV is spreading predominantly through heterosexual contact. The entire basis of your argument is flawed…
“Congratulations to Nigeria for preserving civilized society.”
Yes, professor Barrow, banning gay marriage will promote civilization in a third world country, wont it?
“We need to find a way to put an end to these atrocities and bring these people into the 21st century”
We can’t even bring Skip Barrow into the 21st century.
More and more, wish we’d been born in the 22nd century.
Lies are easy to dispel—please try again:
HIV and syphilis rates highest among men choosing gay sex
HIV: “44 times that of other men” Syphilis: “46 times that of others - 71 times more than women”
CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS - Infectious Disease News
March 10, 2010
http://www.infectiousdiseasenews.com/article/61780.aspx
@Skip Barrow - That’s in the United States. We’re not talking about America, we’re talking about international trends.
“Lies are easy to dispel—please try again”
No, lies are not that easy to dispel.
Your thinking is based on remote teleology: in this case, you think,
“Homosexuality… is a fruitless and potentially deadly [behavior].”
Eliminate homosexuality and we would still have high rates of STDs; and more pregnancy—gays do not become pregnant unless via surrogates.
Good thinking InTomorrow—two things we definitely don’t want are lower STD rates or pregnancies. Consequently, who implied that STD’s were anything more than just the tip of the ice berg ?
“A study published in the journal Cancer on May 9, 2011 has now specifically examined the cancer survivorship of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual population ....Furthermore, recent studies have shown that same-sex sexual contact is linked to a higher incidence of head and neck and anal cancers.”
May 12, 2011
http://www.cancernetwork.com/prostate-cancer/content/article/10165/1860201
Skip,
too many pregnancies are unwanted; too many parents are not competent to adequately take care of their children. I’m not even sure of the following statistics you furnished:
“HIV and syphilis rates highest among men choosing gay sex
HIV: 44 times that of other men. Syphilis: 46 times that of others - 71 times more than women”
How can it be definitely ascertained which of the study subjects were gay? perhaps a substantial portion were bisexual, which makes a difference- as the percentage of the population who are bisexual is much higher than the percentage who are exclusively homosexual.
And as Mr. Kovich wrote above, the stats are for the US, not the world.
The thought might cross a suspicious person’s mind that you harbor a profound animus towards gays. What about lesbians?- do you dislike them as well? do you dislike adulterers, too, Skip? If you think celibacy is the way to go, then say so—nothing wrong with celibacy.
“The demographics of sexual orientation are difficult to establish for a variety of reasons. One of the major reasons for the difference in statistical findings regarding homosexuality and bisexuality has to do with the nature of the research questions.”
The above are the opening lines of the Wiki entry on demographics of sexual orientation. The official estimate of the percentage of gays is between 2- 4%. However the percentage of bisexuals in the population is much higher, I wont even bother to look up the estimate of bisexuals, because the numbers are thoroughly unreliable. The sexuality aspect of this doesn’t interest me much, it is the unreliability of data; researchers cannot look into the minds of interviewees, as they lie too much. And that matters, because Skip Barrow’s Quixotic interest in curbing homosexuality is reduced to nothingness when the percentage of bisexuals in Africa or anywhere else is factored in.
IMO, if all homosexual activity were hypothetically banned, the rates of STD infection would remain high.
The unreliability of a researcher distinguishing between a gay and a bi is because of (naturally) miscommunication—dissembling being a subset of miscommunication.
A gay may call himself bi because he once in awhile dates a hetero. A bi may call himself gay because he might prefer men. And so forth. Subjects may try to please researchers they like by giving answers they think the researchers want. Conversely, an interviewee may give a false answer to a researcher he doesn’t like. A subject may simply be slightly annoyed at an attempted intrusion into his privacy, and give false answers as camouflage.
So, suddenly all of medical science is incompetent because it doesn’t suit your silly ideas ? Consequently, cancer is not an STD. Neither are any of these in normal sexual practices:
Amoebiasis Rising in Those Choosing Gays Sex:
“Infection is common in areas with poor sanitation, in mental institutions and in homosexual males.”
2003-12-11
http://dsol-smed.phac-aspc.gc.ca/dsol-smed/ndis/diseases/amoe_e.html
Entamoeba histolytica is a pathogenic ameoba that has recently been recognized as an emerging pathogen in men who have sex with men (MSM) in Asia-Pacific countries where it is not endemic (native)
CDC: Emerging Infectious Diseases
Vol. 14, No. 7, July 2008
http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/14/7/pdfs/1141.pdf
“Infection may be caused by poor hygiene and most commonly occurs in daycare centers, nursing homes, and in sexually active homosexual males.”
‘What is Giardiasis?’
May.11, 2011
http://linssky.com/2011/05/giardiasis/
“Prevalence of the disease also is high in homosexual and bisexual men, owing to the high rate of genitourinary and gastrointestinal infections in this group.”
‘HLA-B27 Syndromes - Reactive Arthritis’
Aug 3, 2011
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1201027-overview#aw2aab6b6
‘Molecular epidemiological studies show that hepatitis A virus is endemic among active homosexual men in Europe’
Journal of Medical Virology, 79: 356–365
20 FEB 2007
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.20781/abstract
U.S. tracks serious form of syphilis [neuro-syphilis] in gay men
Jun 28, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/28/idUSN28314225
Bacterial Vaginosis has mutated to a STD among women choosing lesbianism
New York Medical Center - National Institute of Health
1995 Dec 21
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8749623
First Sexually Transmitted Typhoid Develops From Gay Sex
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
April 25, 2001
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0055yL
Multidrug-Resistant Staph Clone Emerges in Men Choosing Gay Sex
January 16, 2008
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/568878
...................and MANY, MANY more…...
NOW—back to the question of what sort of fool would encourage people into this mess ? Homosexuality being the basis of homosexual marriage…..in fact, I already know the answer—someone who cares a lot less about these people than they do their own self-aggrandizement under the guise of faux civil rights. Surely, we can next encourage ‘happiness’ among alcoholics. It makes us feel good to see them smile when we serve that next drink. Congratulations on enabling self-destruction - unlike alcoholism, however, encouraging non-procreation and disease proliferation destroys us in droves. With friends like you, civilization doesn’t need any enemies.
IT IS LAWS LIKE THIS THAT PROMOTES DISEASES AND OTHER ILLS IN THE SOCIETY
Simple problem proffered complex solution. What is needed here is not scientific prove, killing or imprisonment of the gay community, but simple use of common sense to solve simple problem.
Skip Barrow, It was good research you copied out here, but what is your own suggestion? Did you think 14years imprisonment “Cures” or will scare gay men and women from sexual expression? I really don’t see your line of argument.
I have worked with gay men and lesbian through my professions for years in this country and while I was in Africa.
My major learning through these interactions with the gay community is that Committed relationship leads to sexual responsibility and not disease. Read history of heterosexual marriage. It is the basis of heterosexual marriage too. (Of course you would want to quote Adam and Eve in the Bible.)
Witch-hunting either by government or religion can only promote shady deeds, hypocrisy and diseases.
I have been gay all my life too. I am not HIV positive nor would you find STD in my medical record. What is the goal of this law? Even in the Middle East where gay and lesbians are officially killed, we still continue to exist there because we are products of heterosexual sexual relationship. (To really stop gay from existence, may be you heterosexuals who fathered us need to go extinct first.)
The point here is that you don’t jail the heterosexuals Africans because they are the majority suffering from HIV/AIDS in Africa. Where is the justice in jailing or killing the gays and lesbian Africa over whom they sleep with?
Some of you think allowing gay marriage will affect human population. What a shallow thinking! Gays and Lesbians have and will always be part of human beings. It does not stop population growth. There are unfruitful heterosexual marriages. There are heterosexuals who chose not to have kids even in Africa. That has not in anyway stop population growth.
This is a question of justice and irrational witch hunting. As Igwe said, it makes no sense criminalizing the gay community because you don’t want them to have sex. (Of course, no law works in Nigeria. They are often made to victimize and exploit the citizens)
The move of the government on this issue is not different from that of Boko Haram, a terrorist group fighting for their lame god. The basis of this law in Nigeria is not really about procreation or healthy living but a matter of sex and God. Let God fight people like me. God needs not your stupid laws to do that.
Based on your argument about the sickness that may arise from sexual intercourse, marriage can seriously reduce that. I have worked with many gay couples. I have many examples of committed relationships and healthy living in the gay community. One of the couples I met a few years back were together for 45yrs. One of them died in the hospital where I worked. He was 85 while his partner was 80. There was no STD in their medical story. I have met many others too who are alive. That is America though.
What laws like this and people like you promote is promiscuity, hypocrisy and disease. John Courage Nigeria.
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