Let’s Give Gay People a Break

So the gay community was back in the lime light after the courts ruled that they’ve got the right to have their association registered. Apparently, denying them the registration was going against their constitutional rights. Now everybody is up in arms protesting against this harmless minority. Even the Deputy President himself put his weight behind the debate invoking biblical and cultural views on the matter.

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is in letting gay people be. I don’t see how another person’s sexual orientation (whatever that is) has anything to do with me. The activities of a gay person are in no way harmful to another person. Their engagements are self-involving and they use their own “apparatus”. Being a layman, I don’t know what leads somebody to become gay but then, neither do you! Even gay people themselves do not know why they are gay. Many people say it’s a choice but I don’t believe that. What would make a man choose to be attracted to another man, or a woman to a woman?

I would hate to impose my preferences on people whose inner workings I do not understand. In the same breath, I would not want to be self righteous and all-knowing. I would rather concentrate on what I know for sure. Towards this end, I have tried to gather some information concerning this largely ignored group.

Biblical Views

In condemning homosexuality, the deputy President invoked biblical teachings. It is true that the bible does not approve of homosexuality. It is also true that the bible does not approve of a lot of other things alongside homosexuality. In the book of Leviticus chapter 18, God talks about unlawful sexual relations and dispenses their punishments in chapter 20 of the same book. Included among these are incest and bestiality. All of them are detestable and should be condemned equally. What gives us the right to pick one and ignore the others?

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10, idolaters, adulterers, homosexual offenders, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers are promised that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If I may single out adultery, or ‘mpango wa kando’, as it’s popularly referred to in Kenya, I say lets also outlaw it since it is condemned in the same verse as homosexuality in the bible. This condemnation is repeated in 1 Timothy chapter 8 verse 10 where adulterers and perverts are spoken to in the same breath.

Contrary to popular belief, Sodom was not destroyed purely due to homosexual sin. It is written in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 that, “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. Now we all know how arrogant we are especially among our political class. We also know we are overfed judging by the increasing number of pot bellies we can see today.

Anal Sex

Whenever homosexuality is mentioned, most of us think about anal sex. I was surprised to learn that there are homosexual people who have never engaged in anal sex. Some of them are actually in heterosexual marriages complete with children but they are not any less gay than the guys with placards advocating for gay rights. On the other hand, there are many heterosexual couples engaging in anal sex. There are also straight men engaging in gay sex for money and (wonder of wonders) curiosity.

Government Support of Other Vices

The government has been concerned with the spread of HIV and has being using a multi-pronged approach in combating the issue. Towards this end, it has been distributing free condoms to prostitutes (an illegal group) and more recently, school children (who should not even be having sex in the first place). The government supports these vices because it is looking at the bigger picture of dealing conclusively with the disaster (AIDS was declared a national disaster), and also because it does not know how else to deal with the issue.

The government has also been giving syringes to drug addicts especially at the coast in order to try and reduce their cross-infection with HIV due to shared needles. The last time I checked, drug use was illegal. Drug sale and distribution was also illegal. Why would the government opt to support prostitutes and drug users (and by extension barons and peddlers), while they declare an all out war on people with homosexual tendencies and whose activities cause nobody any harm?

Gay Porn

Recent statistics by Google indicated that Kenyans are leading in the world on Gay Porn searches on the internet. It is then obvious that either more of us are gay than we are willing to admit, or we don’t detest it as much as we claim to in public. Is it just casual interest we have in gay sex or are many more of us partakers of the ‘detestable’ activity?

 There, I have said it. You can blast me now!