Ghana - MACDARLING COBBINAH, Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights, Ghana

Hundreds of people rang in to the radio show but these people had already taken sides because of the kind of questions they ask. They kept asking questions that will make me incite the public to attack gay and lesbians. The host of the radio and television stations made their positions clear as to the right of gay and lesbian in the Ghanaian society. Most of these hosts attacked the gays and lesbians and called for a “jihad” against gays and lesbians to prevent the spread of the “act” in Ghana. The few media people who spoke in support of gays and lesbians were attacked by their colleagues and called “GAY”.

People who got to know our contact and location started threatening to kill us. Every morning, people walk behind my house and shout “homosexuals must be ready, we will stop you. We will stop this nonsense”. There were attacks against some of the peer educators who work on a HIV/AIDS Intervention project for MSM in Ghana in Accra and some were beaten. Most of the other peer educators were verbally abused. The threats made our intervention very difficult.

On one morning when going the office vehicle, I found a sticker under the car wiper with the inscription “BURN IT UP”. The same vehicle was broken into and a laptop, drivers license and lots of valuable documents, including my passport, stolen from the vehicle. I reported it to the police but no clue and no arrest was made and I might say no action taken. There were police people dressed in mufti or plain clothes standing in front of our office making it very difficult for gay and lesbian people to access services at our drop-incentre since some of these police officers are well known in the society. There were also police people going round the office area asking questions as to what happens in our office and then they walk into the office from time to time to see what is happening at every moment.

I felt threatened when they started following me with a vehicle. I had to leave and go to a nearby country through the kind support of the International gay and lesbian human rights commission, Astraea Foundation for Justice and Front Line, Dublin.

I believe if we think of something being unnatural, you should think critically about how some things come about. Given that homosexuality has been around from the beginning of time and there are over 400 species of animals documented to practice homosexual behavior, how can we say this is an “unnatural” phenomenon?

We must think deeply about what is African and what is not. If we insist we should cling to our Ghanaian cultural traditions, then we need to get rid of our cars, our watches, our CD players and western clothes. And we must also consider the question, “When did the bible and the Koran brought into Africa by ‘foreigners’ become African and the naturally accepted behavior.” And also, how is it that what is now condoned in those foreign countries has now become “unnatural” in Ghana!

I believe we Ghanaians must build our culture on inclusiveness – an openness to difference that includes supporting whatever loving consenting adults do with each other. We do not condone relationships that involve an abuse of power, whether it involves men abusing their power over women or adults abusing their power over children, mentally challenged or otherwise compromised and less powerful people. We are all human beings first and our sexuality plays such a small role in our daily life. We needn’t focus on what consenting adults do with each other in private, but rather on the way we treat each other, care for those less fortunate and leave the world a better place during our brief time on this planet!