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After This, What Next?

By Alabi Williams
05 July 2015   |   2:00 am
SAME SEX. An average African parent still finds it difficult explaining what it is to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). It is still a big task explaining to children what it means to engage in any of such practices that are operated in the flanks.
gay marriage. PHOTO: startribune.com

gay marriage. PHOTO: startribune.com

SAME SEX. An average African parent still finds it difficult explaining what it is to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). It is still a big task explaining to children what it means to engage in any of such practices that are operated in the flanks.

And so, when an eight-year boy demands explanation for why two bald adult males are hugging and kissing on a global channel, jubilating that their country’s highest court has licensed them to marry, you are at a loss.

Your quick response is to dismiss the scene; ‘oh they are playing’. ‘Playing what? They say they want to get married?’ And you answer again, ‘they are not well’. ‘But can’t you see they are well, daddy?’ And you begin to search for the right words to explain your dilemma. You do not mean that they are physically unwell; what you mean to say is that something had gone terribly wrong with planet earth.

One way to explain it is to say that something is terribly going wrong with the ozone layer. Climate change experts would explain that the various physical activities of man since the time of industrial revolution have crescendoed and bored a gaping hole in the ozone shield that protects the earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The earth is now naked and endangered. But because we care, we are encouraged to plant trees and do less of destructive activities in order to protect mother earth.

Just as the earth is physically threatened by tangible actions, it is also intangibly endangered by the morality of society. Whether we admit it or not, certain old values and traditions that have kept mankind from ruination are now being chiseled away. The human mind is continuously running amok, trying to experiment with any and everything in sight.

And that is not new. But society, being the regulator of the individual and collective conscience had always come to the rescue, to know what to permit and what to sanction.

Which was why man graduated from living in a beastly and bestial state of nature to that of an organised traditional society, where relationships are prescribed; and there are rules and regulations. In traditional societies, due to limited knowledge, deviant behaviours were severely and summarily sanctioned.

However, as societies become modern, with advancements in science and medicine, certain social behaviours have been subjected to thorough investigation and found to have links with other causative environmental factors and sometimes, biology.

That could lead to the argument whether it is politically and socially correct to punish a social behaviour that could have emanated as a result of, perhaps, congenital dysfunction.

For that reason, modern society may tolerate and understand certain behavioural contrarianism, with good reason. For example, in biology, there is a defect called hermaphroditism, where a person presents with having both male and female sex organs. With good medical procedure, such patient could be relieved of the burden of having to carry around two sex organs. That, we can easily explain to an eight-year old. Psychoanalyses have also helped to explain certain sexual complexities and there are psychosocial therapies to manage them. All that we should be able to explain in sex education to inquisitive minds.

But we are in a different age now and persons are presenting with strange sexual behaviours. It is stranger that medicine is yet to find explanation for the anomaly called same sex. Researches to find genetic reason for same sex practice have not yielded good result. Just as it is yet unproven that it is the result of some biological or inborn characteristic. When science comes up with empirical findings on why some people prefer same sex, there should be ways to deal with it.

And that is where the dilemma lies for many traditional societies; how to explain to an impressionable population that these strange things adults are doing openly in America is not for everybody. It is not that same sex never existed; it may have existed in the fringes of many societies. It is done underground in many societies and professions. In prisons and schools, young persons are exposed to lesbian and homosexual behaviours, but authorities do not condone them. It is the same thing that the Bible talks about in Genesis 19, when the people of Sodom and Gomorrah copulated anally. And the Lord rained down sulfur to decimate them. Same sex is still not the popular thing in some traditional societies and those who engage in it do so in hiding, because they know it is an aberration.

Those who engage in same sex in today’s America and in other Western countries have reached a level where their civilisation no longer allows them to do it in hiding. They have elevated same sex to a popular culture and have gone ahead to add it in their statute books. And they are bent on taking it round the globe. Just the same way their forebears took Christianity and colonialism round the globe. When they took Christianity and colonialism round the globe, many colonized societies had little choice in the matter. They just woke up one morning and saw White men forcing their ways through the swamps and mangroves. Then they partitioned and took ownership.

The centuries of relationships between some Western countries and their former colonies, even after decades of political independence remain very cordial in some cases. There are business and cultural ties that are very binding, through which both sides are strongly influenced. Pop culture in America and other Western societies have been transferred to many countries across the world. Like they say, when America sneezes, the world trembles. As America is in a frenetic mood over same sex and gay marriages, some traditional societies are catching cold.

In Nigeria and other African countries, there are concerns that the gale of same sex blowing in America will touch down sooner than later in a more furious manner. Stealthily, advocates of same sex are working from the flanks, brainwashing donor recipients on how to become more politically and socially correct. At some embassies of western countries, you have to mind your language and actions, so that you do not expose your sexual preferences. Over the next decade, advocacy would certainly grow on why the Nigerian society should become more lenient and liberal on sexual matters.

At the level of legislation, the Nigerian government under former president Jonathan had said a big NO to entreaties by the US and Britain to be lenient with LGBTs, and had gone ahead to criminalise such practices punishable with 14 years jail term. These same countries have warmed up so well to President Buhari, promising partnership in many sectors. So far, there is not much to worry about, because Buhari himself is a highly religious man. His religion (Islam) prescribes even harsher terms for violators, but all the same, eternal vigilance is hugely recommended.

Poorer and donor dependent African countries may not find this moment very comfortable. With carrot and stick in hand, many Western countries are going to use financial assistance as bait to demand fairer anti-gay legislation. Malawi had already succumbed, with Uganda no longer too sure of its originally stiff legislation. Despite being poor, Gambia had told the West to go to hell on same sex, but despot Yahaya Jameh will not remain in power forever. Old man Robert Mugabe has taunted Barack Obama with a marriage proposal since the US president endorses gay marriage. Only God knows how much a pauperized Zimbabwe can withstand more sanctions, especially when Mugabe finally exits.

The point is that those who make bizarre sexual choices should be democratic enough to live with them. You do not need to export LGBT to poverty stricken countries in lieu of financial grants. That could be an unforgiveable sin. African traditional societies are still grappling with basic economic and political issues. Perhaps, when they get as economically powerful and socially civilized as the West, they may become overfed and alter their God-given sexual behaviour, which for now remains straight. Until then, it is their inalienable right not to be forced to become liberal with gay issues.

Let it be stated that societies that now seem to be driving recklessly on the lane of extreme permissiveness were not always like this. America used to be God’s Own Country, planted on the hill to show light. Their forebears searched scripturally in order to establish a pure society according to Bible principles.

Today, America is infested with malignant libertarianism. The two major political tendencies are divided in the contest for the soul of America. And they are using everything, including ‘political correctness’ to drive their messages. While the Republicans prefer minimal government interference in business, the Democrats want minimal State interference in private morality. And the question is, after gay rights, what next? I’m afraid to even imagine.

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