Vaginas and Penises: Why Ghana Is Not Having the Right Conversations About Them

It's understandable. We are a highly religious people who will refuse that we have a vagina or a penis or an anus, or even know what they are - simply because it is taboo and offensive to show that you have those parts on your body, or to show that you know what they can be used for.

Yet we are the second country in Africa with the highest number of pornography viewers for one of the biggest porn websites in the world.

Over the past 5 years, we have had over 555,000 teenage pregnancies and Ghana Health Service estimates that 301 girls are impregnated every day in Ghana while 13 teenage pregnancies are recorded every hour.

Clearly, we know where our vaginas and penises are, but we are not having the right conversations about them with ourselves.

It shows in how the LGBTQI issue is being handled and regarded - by extension.

By all means, let there be legislation around LGBTQI.

But let it not be to legalise tyranny and overturn fundamental human rights. As the current bill stands, it does exactly that.

You exclaim "Good riddance! Why not!" because LGBTQI disgusts you. You just need it gone. Discouraged. Annihilated by any means necessary.

So you use arguments like homosexuality is not genetic; it is not by birth; it is not a medical issues, etc.

That is not the argument here.

The argument here is this:

When someone is caught and accused of a crime, there are set ways and procedures by which they are tried, to evidence the accusation - before anyone declares them guilty or innocent.

There are specific things that are accepted in the quest to determine them innocent or guilty. Not just any argument goes.

Should evidence find them guilty, there are ways in which they are handled as penalty or reform or rehabilitation.

Nobody can get up and decide anyhow-ly, what constitutes a crime, how one can be found guilty of that crime, what happens to that person if they are found guilty. There are ways to go about it, and there are not only national, but universal laws that apply before it all goes through.

In this case, people are saying it does not matter. Just criminalise them, and let everything burn. Meanwhile, they do not even know of all the other areas that will burn when this fire is set.

No man or woman, can get up and based on their disgust, criminalise an act based on their feelings and opinions. The day that happens, is the day we will all become criminals.

Why are you fat? - someone passed a bill and made it a crime.

Why are you dark? - someone passed a bill and made it a crime.

Why are you grey-haired? - someone passed a bill and made it a crime.

You can ask for restrictions to be placed on exposure of under-aged children to certain content. That is your right. But it does not mean you can criminalise it.

In all this, most people are accusing the LGBTQI of refusing to stay in the shadows and keep quiet. "Why are you trying to force us to accept you?"

2 things. If you identify something and label it repulsive, and begin to treat it as something that must be exterminated, it will fight back to survive. Leave it alone. And it will leave you alone. Provoke it, and it will try to save itself.

Secondly, few people want to engage them as humans and hear their side of the story.

For a country that claims such high levels of religion - Jesus Christ, God, Prophet Muhammed, Buddha, etc - did they not all engage those they claimed to be sinners in love and friendship? What do your Holy Books say about people you believe are sinners?

Almost every Ghanaian is afraid of a coup d'état or civil unrest - because "rule of law is best" and we don't want to become like Liberia, or Sierra Leone or other war-torn countries. And yet, when you feel like picking and choosing - you decide to throw human rights and rule of law out and push for a bill that decides that, based on your disgust, anyone seen to appear like, or to support, or be friendly to anything regarding LGBTQI should all be burned.

Why not throw out every other legislation and allow our emotions and opinions to re-write all of them too?

Like I said, you're fat and I don't like the way your ass shakes - so I am sponsoring a bill to render it criminal. Anyone else who likes you or supports you will also be rendered criminal.

And if you come and try and talk me out of this position, “Fuck You. You’re one of them!” Or I'm mad?