ONE of the key attributes of a democratic system is the equality of all citizens before the law.
That, among others, is designed to ensure that the law is uniformly applied to all citizens and that there is no set of laws for one group of citizens and another for another group.
That notwithstanding, these rights and freedoms conferred and enjoyed by the people are not open ended but limited by the rights and freedoms of others in society.
Limitations also exist in the definition and enforcement of the value of each respective society, in particular its perception of good and evil, social peace, order and good governance.
It is not for the sake of fancy that no society sanctions the formation and open operation of an association of armed robbers or cocaine sniffers, even as cocaine sniffers may wish to exercise their freedom to freely associate.
In the same vein, kleptomaniacs who are born with the penchant for taking other people’s property without their consent cannot exercise their rights of freedom to associate and practise “their gift of nature”.
For some years now, a noticeable trend in Western democracies has been the recognition and enforcement of the rights of homosexuals, that is, gays and lesbians, to function openly in those societies.
The result has been an explosion of those abnormal human relationships in those societies.
In recent times, this spectre of same-sex relationships is fast creeping into our society, with their practitioners emboldened and increasingly advocating in public for their clandestine acts to be legalised for them to operate publicly.
Some time in 2007 and again in 2009, there were reports of attempts by homosexuals to organise conferences in Accra and Takoradi but because of their current illegal status and the threats of disruptions from many Ghanaians, the conferences were called off.
Only recently, Muslims in Takoradi staged a massive demonstration to draw attention to the social menace and urge all authorities, and for that matter all Ghanaians, to endeavour to check it before it gets out of hand.
It is from such a background that we feel duly concerned about human rights activists wading into this matter and advocating the legalisation and recognition of the rights of these gays and lesbians to function openly.
While we are unequivocal in our defence of the rule of law and the protection and promotion of the fundamental human rights of all citizens of this land, we wish to make our position clear that this does not include supporting any attempt to legitimise this unethical and abnormal practice of homosexuality in our society.
The issue here for us is not just one of law or human rights from Euro-American perspectives. It has so much to do with morality, social peace, societal good, as well as the inalienable rights of our nation and its people to procreate and renew themselves as ordained by the Almighty God.
We wish to counsel our compatriot human rights activists that while it is all right to exercise their professional duty in this and other matters, they nevertheless must be mindful of the need to strike a healthy balance between what they perceive as the rights of these homosexuals, on the one hand, and the values, interests and aspirations of the larger masses of our society, on the other.
They especially should take due cognisance of the over-riding need of the social good, peace and orderly progress of our society.
What will, indeed, become of our nation if we allow such an immoral and abnormal practice to take root? How will we procreate and renew our society?
Again being a predominantly religious and God-fearing society, don’t we risk inviting the wrath of the Almighty God on our nation and people if we allow this evil practice to get entrenched? Let us not forget what happened to Sodom and Gomorra when such immoral acts reigned supreme.
We, therefore, call on all people of religion and good conscience, all who truly cherish the survival, peace and orderly progress of our nation to join hands to stop this attempt at importing such moribund, decadent and destructive foreign cultures and practices into our society.
The time to act to stop this menace is now, not later when it is already entrenched.
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