But whether we like it or not, gay or straight, homophobic or die hard gay activist, we are all parts of one whole; the human race, the African community. If a segment of that community is unhappy, as is the case with the majority of the gay segment of the African community, this is a matter for the whole of the African community. We homosexual Africans are Africans too, and the issues that we face in society with stigmatisation and so forth are ultimately issues which the African society as a whole must confront. HIV prevention information that is targeted specifically at Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) for instance, benefits not only these men in particular, but the whole of society, since it is the case that many of these MSMs also have heterosexual partners with whom they routinely engage in sexual intercourse, most of which is unprotected. Homosexual people are a part of mainstream society. We are not divorced from it.
Contrary to the belief held by some, there has not been an increase in the homosexual population in Africa. The information age has created opportunities for information to be disseminated more widely, more rapidly, and the outcome that we have seen is of awareness and enlightenment on a scale never before witnessed in human history. The world has shrunk and what information a person is privy to is determined less and less by where that person is located physically. Homosexual Africans are aware that their counterparts in other parts of the world have been recognised to be ordinary human beings who express an entirely normal variation of human sexuality. Sexual relations between adults of whatever gender cannot be abnormal, since as human beings our sexuality is an integral part of who we are. Consensual sexual relations between adults of whatever gender is not immoral either, in my submission.
It is immoral to rape, but it cannot be immoral if I as a man should fall in love with another man whose desire it is to love me back. How can it be said to be immoral when two adult people find happiness together? Who is harmed? Where is the victim? Is it moral when a homosexual man hides or denies his sexuality, marries a woman whom he cannot love, and lies to her daily while cheating on her with other men? Is this the course that these very 'moral' good African people would rather that I follow?
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, because you're going to have to get used to me, and others like myself, who are willing no longer to bow to some archaic colonial European doctrine that decrees compulsory heterosexuality. I am not heterosexual, and although I love my sisters very much indeed, I am a man who is physically, psychologically, emotionally, and sexually attracted to masculinity. I am gay, and I am 100% African. That closet door was shut behind me long ago, and I intend never to go back there.
More and more of us gay Africans need to come out and speak up. When we do this, we can create for ourselves a voice that people will listen to and not feel threatened by, while at the same time shedding that burden of the fear-of-exposure that dominates our lives, which only provides fertile ground for blackmailers, and fodder for tabloids such as the Red Pepper in Uganda. You cannot out me, because I have outed myself already. And there is nothing you can do about it!
