Ghana is not a secular country

Today, I was in the process of my morning facebook ritual and I saw something that disturbed me, it was a picture of the president of my country, and he was saying something that I could not agree with as a Ghanaian but more importantly as a human being. Fortunately, we have free speech in Ghana so I just thought I’d pour my heart out onto a page, or a screen in this case.

I understand that homophobia is a thing here in Ghana, I might even go as far as to say it’s become part of our culture but this, I wouldn’t expect this from someone who was able to become president.I would expect him to say something along the lines of “Let the people vote on it” or “OK, cool” but no, because people will always choose the easiest way out regardless of whether it’s the right choice or not.Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he did the wrong thing or the right thing because I feel that this is a subjective matter.I’m saying, it’s OK if he decides not to legalize LGBT rights but he shouldn’t call Ghana a secular country as it is not one.It’s simple logic call a dog, a dog and a cat, a cat, it is that simple.

Now if you look at his last sentence he stated “Despite our challenges, our nation stands paramount against any other foreign interest”. Correct me if I’m wrong but due to the way he stated it he’s basically trying to say Ghanaians are not gay and the only people in Ghana who are gay, are foreign people, so it would be in their best interests if there were gay rights in Ghana. Wow, Ghana is country I'd sure like to stay in forever.

Back to the main issue, so, let’s take it, x people hate gay people, y people hate traditionalists, z hate Christians and w people hate coca-cola.Obviously, z and w are in the minority here so they have no problem but x and y are a whole different story.My question is this, why is it that even though Ghanaians hate traditionalists almost as much as gay people, there was no law made against being a traditionalist, whilst there is a law that states you can be jailed for being a gay person?Also, in his statement the president talks as if secularism encompasses only religion which is a pretty childish way to look at the concept, in my opinion.

We’re all humans, and as humans there are things and people that you will always hate, the only difference between the ignorant bigots who are always spewing things like this because of their religion and people who actually matter and make and impact in society is how you respond to it.If you don’t like someone, don’t interact with them, if you do need to interact with them, be very civil and respect their boundaries.You don’t need to go around saying things like “Jesus loves you, so stop being gay”, “Do you know why God created man and woman?” or “Stop being gay or else you’ll burn in hell” and making people feel bad for liking something that they like.It doesn’t matter if it’s an evil spirit or a family member has bewitched them because, guess what? they’re not you and they should have the right to have sex and be in fulfilling relationships without having to look over their shoulder all the time.

You wouldn’t like it if a Muslim or Traditionalist was constantly forcing their religion on you, so stop it, live and let live, it’s not as if we had gay rights, gay people will start raping straight people on sight for some reason , gay people are obviously still gay and they obviously still do gay things which do not involve “your” genitals or anal region and they’re here to stay.