Being Gay in Africa: A Vice or a Virtue?

Prior to the Sochi Winter Games in Russia, there was a global uproar mainly from the western world directed to Russia due to its draconian laws and views on homosexuality. Fast forward and shift from the massive Eurasian subcontinent to Africa and to Uganda specifically. President Yoweri Museveni was under intense pressure from western powers not to assent the anti-gay bill into law. However, he went ahead and signed the bill into law and face a global backlash with US president Barack  Obama terming it morally wrong and said that it “will be a step backward for all Ugandans.”

Ugandan Strongman Yoweri Museveni

Already, homosexuality is illegal in 83 countries in the world, Kenya included. That is, half the world. Could half the world be blind? Is being a homosexual an acquired trait or an inborne permanent condition and requires special recognition? Proponents will argue for that view while opponents will think otherwise.

As it has been pointed out and again, if homosexuality is a human right, so should sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies such as being a kleptomaniac, a murderer or a rapist and even stealing. Thieves or rapist should argue that they did not acquire their habits but rather were born so. With more than half the world adhering to one of the three Abrahamic religions namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the opponents pose that if God plainly and blatantly condemns homosexuality as the worst transgression against him, then how can we claim a right to an evil, sin and crime?

Countries around the Globe with Anti-homosexuality Laws (in black)

Prior to scramble and partioning of Africa, homosexuality was virtually unheard of. Few areas that experienced cases of such, were mainly areas within the coastal strips that were international trade routes. Hence, when a person claims to have been born gay, how came in our forefathers' generations and their forefathers there were no people born gay? Or has there been a genetic mutation leading to people being born gay then and not now?

In my own opinion, there are no simple answers to the topic. Both sides have valid points and just like the case of which religion is better than the other or which is the correct one, it is a debate that cannot and will not end. It is a back and forth rocking. One thing though, Africa has never put the western world under duress to accept a culture that is deeply entrenched on the continent, like circumcision. Thus, it is my feeling that they should not interfere with how Africa wants to go about its cultural practices.