Within very recent times, there has been a vigorous debate in this country on same sex activities and on whether the law should be amended to proscribe discrimination against those whose sexual orientation pulls them in the direction of homosexual behaviour.
Political scientist Peter Wickham started the debate and he was followed quite fortuitously by a statement from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who linked future British aid with the end of discrimination against gays and the protection of their rights.
This call provoked vigorous responses after it was made to a gathering of leaders at the recently held summit of Commonwealth states in Australia. President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for example, called the British Prime Minister “satanic”.
Other leaders were equally critical if not so damning, wide public discussion on our call-in programmes allowed the public to have their say, and our Attorney General made it clear that we would not be pushed by anyone into changing our laws in return for aid.
We applaud this approach in principle, and in any event directions issuing from a former colonial master rub us the wrong way. We are now a sovereign state!
In the past two days the gay rights issue has returned to the front-burner. No less a person than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience of diplomats in Geneva that “gay rights are human rights”. Her statement was a strong one. She declared that “gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world; being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality”.
The BBC reported the speech by stating that the United States had publicly declared it would fight discrimination against gays and lesbians abroad by using foreign aid and diplomacy to encourage reform. It says also that a memo from the Obama administration directs United States government agencies to consider gay rights when making aid and asylum decisions.
We appreciate that the demands of domestic politics in both these countries might conduce to same sex political policies directed to the sizeable gay lobby. That is the reality of politics, and we respect the right of any government to tailor its policies accordingly.
But what is good for one country may not be right for another, especially in relation to such sensitive aspects of human behaviour, and we are sure politicians on both sides of the Atlantic recognize this reality!
Social, political and cultural realities make a difference, and same sex issues are matters on which the views of the broad masses of the people of this Christian country must be clearly known before there can be any change in our laws. We continue to support the principled stance of the Government on this issue.
