A Collective Step Forward

The United Nations General Assembly finally passed a resolution condemning extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions including those carried out on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The UAE and Singapore were among the 44 countries that attempted to strip away this new clause but this time their proposed amendment was not supported by the majority.  Ultimately only one country voted against resolution (Iran) but a number of African countries (including Ghana) abstained. I wonder how the delegates reached that decision. It will be interesting also to see how people react to this  (assuming it is covered at all by the local media).

Read more on this on the IGLHRC website here

 

Not Going Anywhere: More on Being Gay in Ghana

This is a video I saw many months back from the Accra [dot] Alt group which organises meetings, festivals and other such events geared towards ensuring comfortable spaces of expression for artists and other creative types to express themselves in Ghana. This particular meeting focused on being gay in Ghana and interestingly some of the gays in attendance weren’t shy about expressing them selves at all. This video is part of a collection entitled Ghana Talk Party Series. 

 

By now I’m sure I have answered most of your questions Mr Pink Agendist…

 

Dating 2.0: Of Conversions and Relentless Pursuits

These days it’s getting harder and harder to tell a woman you’re not interested and nip a potential difficulty in the bud. This year I’ve been in a couple of such situations where I meet a woman at work, at a function, in a shop and due to boredom/proximity we get talking and exchange numbers. Suddenly she lets it slide that she’s single and I immediately say that I’m not available and expect that to be end. But no, I start getting calls, invites: “What are you doing this weekend?” “I was just in your area and..” “There’s this play at the National Theatre..“, or my favourite: “Let’s just have sex, no strings attached” (this happened at work I kid you not).

 

“Who Comes Up With This Stuff?” – Funny Gay Myths

We all like to find explanations for ideas and behaviour we cannot understand or at least find someone who does. If we’re lucky we are educated by the people who actually know what they are talking about. Sometimes the people who are the most knowledgeable are unwilling to release their information (and with good reason!) It then falls on the rest of the people to come up with explanations to satisfy their unfulfilled curiosity. Occasionally these “observed phenomena” and attendant explanations are so bizarre that they are more entertaining than (mis)educative but some of them can be frankly insulting, especially when it comes to gay people. Unfortunately there are so few people who are out in our system (Narnia is a favourite travel destination among Africa’s gays) therefore there are lot of stories swirling around concerning gay people.

Here are the most interesting I’ve heard as well as my take on each one:

 

Not For The Faint-hearted

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just spent my morning reading posts and articles about LGBT victims of unspeakable assaults and murders (many of which have gone unsolved), teenage suicides, laws restricting rights of gays/lesbians and even more laws that are being enacted to strengthen pre-existing discriminatory laws. So many young people whose lives have been cut short or forever harmed by injustice.

I wonder if majority of the straight community (homophobes and fence-sitters alike) realise how hard it is to be gay.

 

A Hero Gone Too Soon

source: BBC News

Justin Fashanu, a footballer from 1978-1997, was the first black footballer to be transferred for £1million. He was also the first (and only) footballer in the English Premiership to “come out” (in 1990) even though team mates apparently  knew that he was gay. This happened after he heard a newspaper was going to reveal his sexual orientation and he wanted to beat them to it. However his career was marred by this event and he did not play professional football for six years afterwards (although he had a knee injury during that period). He finally committed suicide in May 1998 after the news broke that he was wanted for questioning by the police regarding a case of sexual assault on a seventeen year old male.