A major on-going debate of serious implications in Ghana and elsewhere is on LGBTQI+.
The discussions have often produced more heat than light, with entrenched positions from all sides. What I am observing is changing of the goal post to suit interests as the debate progresses. I shall discuss the issue of LGBTQI+ from the socio-cultural, natural, health and spiritual perspectives as a medical practitioner, a Catholic, and, for that matter, a Bible-believing Christian.
From where I stand, the issue of LGBTQI+ goes beyond sexual preferences to a clash between secularism and religious beliefs and values. There is a subtle but forceful movement to throw away everything related to God, and a grand agenda of the secular world to erode all the sacred values that God have been revealed through scripture and the Church. The targets are the youth and the child who can easily become captives of their agenda through social media, educational system, politics, and economic influences.
There appears to be a relationship between LGBTQI+, secularism, hedonism, deconversion, occultism and, in the extreme, Satanism. The secular world is pushing forcefully for the acceptance of any behaviours based on personal choice, preferences, and what leads to happiness as perceived by the person. And the advocates of the practices try to justify them in the name of freedom of choice, human rights, non-interference, non-harassment, and non-discrimination.
Various influential groups, including academics, have ganged up not only pushing for their rights to practice whatever they so desire, but some are actively campaigning as advocates, human right activists, and what have you, for others to adopt such practices. The list of such groups continues to rise with time under various captions such as Lesbians, Gay, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI). In order not to leave any group behind, they have added a ‘+’ to the acronym to take care of any future variant that may arise. And trust me, many more of such variants will emerge, and are emerging, such as a human being getting married to a refrigerator because that is his preference!
Orientation vrs Practice
While sexual orientation is not sinful, gay, lesbian, bisexual and similar practices are considered by the Christian and other religious faiths as unnatural, culturally offensive, and sinful in sight of God. Culturally, in Africa, homosexual practices are not acceptable and are considered an abomination.
The practice is frowned upon, and it will be an affront to many should you, a man, present another man to the family as your wife. The issue goes beyond academic discourse if that man happens to be your own son! The Church has maintained that there is a difference between sexual orientation and practice, and it differentiates the two in a non-judgmental manner. It therefore welcomes all persons irrespective of sexual orientation with love (this is where some people misread the intentions of the Church) but continues to admonish everyone that certain practices (including fornication, adultery, cheating, homosexuality) are wrong and sinful in the sight of God. The Church maintains that there is the need to move away from such practices and encourages us to live our lives in the holiness of God, as prescribed by Scripture. Where needed, counselling and other services are provided for everyone, as part of support systems.
It must be said that LGBTQI+ orientation, for most, usually starts from secondary schools under a ‘supi’ system where juniors are supposed to serve their seniors as ‘maids’; unfortunately, some are drawn into homosexual/lesbian practices through peer pressure, monetary inducement and naivety.
Fortunately. many people grow out of such practices as they mature, but a few get deeper when they unfortunately are lured into contact with outside groups which promote such practices. It can therefore be seen that, if even there is a genetic predisposition to LGBTQI+, only a few may be affected. People acquire such practices when it is opportune through bad company, just as one may become a criminal if the person falls among a group with similar inclinations. Lastly, it is important to note that the findings of the largest study of almost 500,000 genomes of homosexuals and bisexuals shows that while sexual preferences have a genetic component (about 25% in some studies), no single gene has a large effect on sexual behaviours. The study found that the most important factors were environmental and cultural.
Activists are, however, pushing the frontiers of human rights, freedom, non-interference and non-discrimination to ridiculous levels currently. Now we have gotten to the stage where people are not just practicing homosexuality in all its variants, but they are actively promoting the practice for others to emulate openly. Any attempt to draw their attention to the fact that the practices may be against the laws of the land is met with accusation of harassment. When people move into justifying these sexual practices in the name of human rights or personal choices, and accept or canvass the practices as the norm, then we may be treading into dangerous grounds as there cannot then be any limits. It is akin to saying that anything goes if one decides in favour of a practice, or the practice is agreed to by consenting adults. We cannot as a society live our lives based on preferences and orientations, if even there is a genetic association with such orientations, which is not even proven. There is a tendency in all to fornicate, cheat, masturbate, steal, and commit adultery, but that cannot be accepted as normal. I am sure that if similar genomic studies are performed among criminals, adulterers, drug addicts and serial killers, there will be some genetic varients among them. That will however not excuse anyone from the laws of the land or from ,law enforcement agencies.
Furthermore, there is recognition that pornography is addictive and not helpful, even though there is an orientation to indulge in it. To justify their practices some people will go to the extreme of trying to find some genetic links to their practices, as if genetic predisposing justifies their practices.
What is very worrisome and exposes those championing the cause of LGBTQI+ as alternative lifestyles are the serious child abuse in so-called developed countries, where hormonal therapies are given to children as they grow into puberty in order to enhance the supposed sexual preferences of children. A parent may observe that his child, who is biologically a boy, begins to show some preference in dressing like a girl. At or near puberty, the child is given hormonal medications to suppress his natural male tendencies and rather enhance his perceived preference for a girl. And who tells you that the child may not be making a major mistake and may be adopting the preferred lifestyle purely to attract attention?
Almost all children have an aversion to go to school some time or the other, but no parent in his/her right senses will encourage or endorse such childhood pranks so as not to ‘offend’ the child. Do we know of the long-term health consequences of such hormonal therapies during adult life? And who cares as long as their overall objective of promoting deviant behaviours, as signs of development and enlightenment, is achieved! Child-right activists, stand up and be counted!
Interestingly, in most countries, there are laws against nudity, incest, indecent exposure, and having sex in public.
What will happen if people start challenging these laws, in the name of human rights and non-discrimination against their sexual orientation? What happens if people claim to prefer sleeping with animals (zoophilia, bestiality) on account of their orientation? What will happen if such people gang up and claim that they have the right to practice as they want because that is their sexual orientation and preference? What happens if an association of “cheaters” rise in the future and claim that the tendency to cheat is in their genes and not under their control and thereby laws should be changed to accommodate them? When that situation is accepted, then we are in trouble.
There is a small group of people who steal without knowing due to some psychological orientation (kleptomania), but that will not be an excuse for law-enforcement agencies in the secular world should that happen in practice. As have been mentioned already, some people claim that homosexuality is acceptable among free consenting adults, but what about consenting criminal rings for prostitution, child trafficking and drug addiction? All these are against the laws of almost all countries, and why do we separate LGBTQI+ which is also in the criminal codes of most countries?
Which country in Europe or North America will allow a group of people to open an office there and openly advocate and promote bigamy or incest, in the name of freedom of association and human rights? I hasten to add that such a group will be arrested and prosecuted, with the insistence that they are going contrary to the laws of the land! Infact, all of Europe and Oceania (except the Solomon Island), as well as almost all countries in North America and South America, are said to have laws against polygamy and bigamy and one can be imprisoned for up to 7 years in some countries should one be convicted. Why will the same countries be actively promoting LGBTQI+? What double standards! It is unfortunate, therefore, if some governments and aid agencies tie financial aid to acceptance of LGBTQI+ practices, which goes against the very principle of nondiscrimination they seem to preach. For obvious reasons, rights are not absolute and may depend on sensibilities of others. You may have the right to partying, but you may be arrested for excessive noise making.
The logical answer is that there are limits to freedoms, and most cultures set their standards over time.
LGBTQI+ and Health
I am interested in the issue of homosexuality and its variants as a public health practitioner because the evidence shows that some of these practices pose public health threats.
According to data from the Ghana AIDS Commission, while HIV seroprevalence rate in the general population was 1.9% in 2019, that among prostitutes was 4.8%, but the rate was as high as 18% in 2017 among men who have sex with men. Imagine what dangers such people pose to others, if they happen to be bisexual and so sleep indiscriminately with other female partners? That is the worry, medically!
There are many other health problems associated with LGBTQI+ practices, such as hypertension, some cancers, overweight and cardiovascular diseases. While some of these conditions may be due to stress and anxiety from fear of discrimination, the practices themselves are risky behaviours which predispose to some of these health condition. It is not uncommon to see prolapse of the rectum, and ulceration around the anus among those involved in such practices. Some have to wear pampas before they can go outside!
As a doctor, I condemn any attempt to discriminate in provision of services or care based on one’s colour, religion, orientation etc. I provide service for all.
However, it is often important to know of certain orientations or conditions about an individual to enable you provide specialised or targeted services and care tailored to the needs of the person. How will you provide wheelchair services to a physically disabled person if the person denies that he has any disability? How can specialized services be provided for a person living with Hb SS if the person denies having the problem? A person who has depression may deny the condition for fear of discrimination, and before you realise the person would have committed suicide. For the few who may have genetic predisposition to homosexuality (if that is even true) there is the need, therefore, to recognize and accept that there is a problem before a solution can be found.
Once the person admits that there is a problem, then the way is opened for appropriate services to be provided for such a person. What is currently happening is that as soon as one points to the issue of homosexual practices, activists begin shouting that we should not mention the issue else it will be discriminatory; I disagree with such a view. I rather believe that we should be able to recognize any issue and deal with it in a non-discriminatory manner.
Biblical basis against Homosexuality.
From the biblical perspective, we are warned against accepting and practicing certain behaviours. There was a stern warning by God through Moses to the Israelites before they entered the promised land:
“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God.
You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.” (Lev 18: 2-3)
After listing a litany of abominations related to incest of various types and sexual relations with near of kin, the Lord continued from vs. 22-26:
“…You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. Thus, the land became defiled; and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you (vs. 22-26); (c.f. Lev 20: 13-16).
The Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for practicing homosexuality, among other sins (c.f. Gen 19: 1-11). Paul spoke forcefully against homosexual practices, as for other sinful practices, thus:
“Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor 6: 9-10.
He continues his warnings in 1 Tim 1: 9-10:
“This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching”.
The final quotation is from Jude 4-5 as follows:
“ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.” There is a consequence for going against the laws of God.
Once again it is pertinent to refer to what Paul says in Rom 1: 18-27:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth… So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”
As has been discussed above, the Church as a mother welcomes everyone inspite of their orientation and practice but expects conversion or change of practice during church life, through preaching and targeted counselling. The fact that we are all sinners does not mean we should not preach.
The Church, incidentally, condemns any form of violence against anyone based on sexual or any other orientation, even though it condemns certain practices as discussed above. The preaching targets any wrongdoing or imperfection among believers, irrespective of the nature of the wrongdoing or imperfection. It has nothing to do with discrimination or denial of rights or services. The Church welcomes all with love but insists on conversion.
Adulterers are expected to change; slanderers are expected to change; thieves are expected to stop stealing, while anyone who is in Christ is expected to be a new creation, the old giving way to the new (c.f. 2 Cor 5: 17). Judgement is the prerogative of God and authorized legal bodies, such as the Courts of the land (c.f. Rom. 13: 1-2). Societal norms usually coincide with God’s laws but, due to secularism and so-called modernism and enlightenment, society appears to be moving head-on against God’s laws.
In summary, there are God-given principles and values of life which transcend all cultures and any deviations from these expose us to predetermined consequences of our actions. It is my contention that LGBTQI+ practices (not necessary the orientation to them) are naturally, culturally and in the religious context, offensive to our values and go directly against the expressed commandments of God and should not be entertained in Ghana.
