Opinions of Sunday, 28 February 2021

Columnist: Osei Tutu

The LGBT conundrum: Our collective hypocrisy is worrying

File photo: Ghana's laws frown on same-sex marriage File photo: Ghana's laws frown on same-sex marriage

In the time of Jesus, there was an instance when the teachers of the Law of Moses and the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery as recorded in John 8:3-11. They wanted Jesus to say something as to what to do to the woman.

But in response, Jesus said whoever had not sinned before should first throw a stone at her. Knowing their hearts and being honest to themselves, each one of them filed out without throwing a stone.

If a similar response were to be given to Ghanaians today that whoever has not sinned before should first throw a stone at an LGBT person, you can bet your last cedi note that in spite of our sinful nature there would be some among us who would put their iniquities aside and throw the first stone.

This shows the level of our hypocrisy as a people. We claim to be devout Christians and Muslims yet we commit all manner of sinful behaviour with impunity.

In our workplaces and even in the church, we steal, we malign others with deliberate intention the destroy their names. We fornicate, we commit adultery, we lie, we covet other people's property. We are full of jealousy and what have you.

In spite of all this, whenever the issue of LGBT is raised, we rise in unison to condemn it with intense disgust and hatred as if it is the only sin on earth. Some even want our laws to be amended so that they can have the right to lynch any suspected LGBT person on sight.

In other words, people are ready to commit a bigger offence (murder) just so that they can eliminate a smaller offence (gayism). They don't even bother to ponder that there is no law that allows anybody to lynch even a murder suspect.

We sometimes forget that even if LGBT persons don't have right as gays at least they have right as humans just as any social misfit has right as human and that right ought to be respected

The problem is that this mass hatred for LGBT persons only hardens their hearts to continue in the act.

We fail to recognize that the tendency for a person to engage in gayism hinges on psychological disposition. Some are lured into the act by financial constraints, neglect by the society, adventurism, ignorance and what have you.

Let nobody take me for a gay or gay advocate. I am no gay and I don't intend to be one. I even abhor the act. But I believe what LGBT people need most are love, empathy and psychological interventions and not hatred, lynching and ostracism.

My advice to those who hate LGBT persons with a passion and those who wish them lynched and ostracised is that which Jesus Christ gave us in Matthew 7:5 to take the log out of our own eyes so that we can see clearly to take the speck out of our brother's eye.