Still in the aftermath of Theresa May’s plea to commonwealth leader for a general reform and a support system for the LGBT community in Africa. The Ghanaian Times took to a torch bearing frenzy in a bid to blindly shut down any hopes for a society where LGBT youths are free from violence and discrimination. With a clear disregard for the Universal Declaration of Human Right in 1948(UDHR), they sort to justify their hatred the LGBT community by claiming it was the cultural thing to do and that they had the right to live in a gay free world.
Firing obvious shots at Theresa May’s hope for peace, they started their article saying;
“We are deeply concerned about overt and covert attempts on the international scene to promote Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), at the neglect and disregard of the rights and cultural values of other countries that do not believe in it.”
While they boldly lay emphasis to the fact that they have no regard for persons of LGBT status, they failed to recognize what the LGBT community in Ghana should expect from a society that has no regard for their existence. Should they expect to be rounded up and killed like animals, should they expect to be deported or should expect to be sent to a far and desolate land, far for everyone else? What does The Ghanaian Times want to happen to the LGBT persons they have no regard for?
Tagging themselves as hypocrites, they went on to say;
“No doubt we live in a global community and relate to one another for the mutual benefits of all. Bigger and influential countries in the south must uphold this principle and not try to subjugate and cow smaller countries in the south, into submission against their conscience”.
After they had clearly imposed their will to subjugate LGBT persons to their beliefs and wished them away form their society. They went on to ask Bigger and Influential countries not to do the same to them. Whatever made them think they had a right to maintain their conscience against submission and LGBT persons weren’t deserving of a chance to do the same simply because the all-powerful press doesn’t like it, is a mystery to me. Could it be that they think LGBT persons only exists by their say so and they have the right to tell people who to love and how to live their lives even though it doesn’t concern them directly.
It became super obvious the great press gods of The Ghanaian Times don’t know a thing about the law when they said;
“Indeed, Article One of the UDHR states that human beings are born equal in dignity and right, and Article Two consummate that right by calling on member countries to guard against discrimination. Significant to our editorial is the principle underlining Article 16 which states in (1) that “Men and Women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution”
What the law is saying here, when applied to the LGBT community and this sad attempt at reporting, clearly means:
1. Human beings have rights from birth, whether you turn out to be gay or straight later on, it doesn’t matter because you were already born equal with dignity. It also goes on to say that everyone (not everyone except gay people) is free from discrimination because their rights are consummated and guarded in Article Two.
2. Human beings have the right to marry and found a family even if religion, nationality or race goes against it. So whatever your culture or religion dictates, it still doesn’t remove the right of marriage for LGBT people.
3. Everyone is entitled to equal rights of marriage, basically if heterosexuals have a right to wed with their friends and family and in the eyes of the law, LGBT persons have the same rights as well.
For some reason, The Ghanaian Times thinks that when the laws says all human beings have a right to marriage, it means, all human beings except the LGBT community have a right to marriage.
The Ghanaian Times moves on to ask a very stupid question;
“The question to ask is; under what laws are we, therefore, pushing for the rights of LGBT? Clearly, nowhere in the UDHR gives right to gayism and lesbianism. The same UDHR also guarantees the right to the enjoyment of cultural values and norms and conscientious objection!”
The law clearly doesn’t push for the rights of LGBT as it does not push for the rights of heterosexuals, it defends the rights of human beings. An except The Ghanaian Times can show us any findings that disqualify LGBT persons as HUMAN BEINGS, then they should have their license revoked until they get the proper education required to understand simple grammar especially when it comes to the law.
Signing off after some extra paragraphs of confusion, they had this to say;
“We in the media, for that matter Ghanaian Times, would not shirk our responsibility as a “watchdog” for society and we will help to raise public awareness and mobilise public opinion to resist and reject any attempt to introduce a sexual orientation that is not in consonance with our cultural, religious norms and values in the name of aid, not here!”
I derive no happiness from schooling The Ghanaian Times on the basic concept of human rights because it is nothing short of heart breaking to see how uneducated the African media is. For an article packed full with errors and a poisonous amount of hate speech to see the light of existence, it brings to question the consumption of the readers. It is one thing to do nothing when countless lives are reduced to a daily dose of fear, violence, injustice, suffering and discrimination but it is the darkest form of wickedness when you choose to justify these things by using religion or twisting the law with hatred.
