In early May 2012, President Barack Obama came out and gave us a monster of a personal opinion: He said he was now, after evolving, in favor of same sex marriage. There was a deafening silence in America and around the world – and then all hell broke loose. ‘How could he?’ pundits asked. ‘He has now lost my vote,’ some African American leaders proclaimed. On the other end of the aisle, people celebrated. That the most powerful person in the world had endorsed the Holy Grail of Marriage was a major victory or a major loss for others. But no where was the response more tepid that from Africa. Yes … A few pastors hemmed and hawed, huffed and puffed. But it was all blue flame. An African American man had come out and said it – it was was now part of history: In this defacto recognition, homosexuals have a place in the sun.

There’s no doubt that repercussions galore will come from Mr. Obama’s ‘endorsement.’ Like a Ugandan journalist put it, Obama sneezed and now, we shall all catch the cold. This paper, for its part, caught the human rights cold a long time ago. We have, for a long time, spoken about the downtrodden, the wretched, the races and also the women. Thus, the same sex marriage, the gay rights and the simple attributes of people will be touched on here – not in a three part series but in one swoop.

At the back of our collective minds is the fact that all gay people deserve the same rights that straight people do. Yes – gay people are different from us and do things that a great many people find detestable. Many conservatives cannot bear the thought of men having sex with men. The anatomical considerations are a little too much for them to bear with and so they shut the images out. However, what are we to say of a man and a woman who have anal sex? According to AskMen.com – a leading website on men’s sexual health – anal sex isn’t just for the sexually daring anymore. It’s becoming more and more common in bedrooms around the world. At the same time, one of those who has evolved into someone who endorses same sex relationships is Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. After his country came under intense obloquy and scrutiny after his parliament’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill, the president asked his people to calm down with the gay bashing. He then responded to what the U.S. and the U.K. wanted him to do – and since 2010, the noises around the anti gay movement have gone mousey. Museveni seemed to suggest that gay people were safe and able to do whatever it is they wanted to do – as long as this was done in the privacy of their bedrooms and not in public. Of course, there is a chance that donor pressure from the West put him in this difficult situation. Nevertheless.

But perhaps this same sex thing needs to be presented in a different way: Hilary Clinton said it best: ‘Gay rights are Human Rights!’ In this, she indicated that the U.S. would use its foreign aid and diplomacy to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians. The U.K’s Premier David Cameron also made it a condition that those receiving UK aid “should adhere to proper human rights” and raised the issue of gay rights at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in October 2011. At this juncture, we can only raise a salutary glass to these leaders and to hope that as many minds will process the evolution around those that need rights as much as everyone else. The point to all this is that gay people are not necessarily influenced. Some are put in situations where they have to have anal sex. Men sometimes want to explore the unexplored and when you are in jail, you could argue that things there go the way of Las Vegas. Therefore, it is completely unfair for anyone to link the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Torah and any of the other holy books to human nature. The fact is that these books are only supposed to be guides and not the catch all for responsible living.

In closing, Obama put many black people in a quandary. What are they to do with the black man who seems to do things that a white man would do? What are the leaders in Zimbabwe supposed to think? Of course that country is a basket case in its own right. However, a fear could emerge with these anti gay things. For those pastors in African countries pushing for stiffer or harsher punishment, Obama may have just become their worst enemy. And for those gay people waiting on the side lines for that lonely voice in the desert, Obama could not have been timelier. We, on the other hand, will turn out our lights and sleep a little happier simply because a few more of our friends and family will have more rights and responsibilities.

Dennis Matanda,
Editor – editor@thehabarinetwork.com