Homosexuality a big deal on the African Continent because of five precepts:
POLITICAL HOT CAKE:
As a subject bringing with it issues of eroticism, gender, human rights and diversity it has positioned itself quire markedly and smack in the middle of conversations on a continent still grappling with infrastructure development, large younger populations, famine, displacements, inchoate democracies and embracing exotic religions. There is competition for attention, resources and logistics. One cannot dismiss the role criminalization has on migration from Africa. Issuance of Visas to different countries when one states they are persecuted due to their sexuality has not been a formal path of entry. Still, sexuality is one of the causes for population displacement and migration from and within Africa. For further information on this one may read: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/regions/africa-sub-saharan, http://www.uua.org/action/statements/immigration-moral-issue,
LEGISLATIVE RED HERRING:
There are advantages that legislation has brought to the african continent: legal boundaries have been curved out for the different states; in political science, a "nation" refers to a group of people who feel bound into a single body by shared culture, values, folkways, religion and/or language
The state and nation are legally acknowledged and hence persons can be identified formally by national IDs or passports. Homosexuality, however as an identity seems to be changing this scenario. Many African countries have either mobilized resources or some already have the resources in place to criminalize homosexuality. Reading through different laws in Africa or popular cultural writings e.g.
www.kuchutimes.com,ubuntucentre.wordpress.com,https://76crimes.com/,http://therustintimes.com/, http://marpsinuganda.blogspot.com/, can point toward an understanding of how Africans are pushing back.
NATURE-NURTURE ACADEMIA RAW-MATERIAL:
It is engaging African scholars and hopefully they will add to the scanty knowledge on homosexuality out of Africa. Africa is yet to produce an inventoried level of detail. Socio-cultural-environmentalists believe it is tied to African indigenous religions but that line is ridiculed because of its connection to African Traditional Indigenous Religions (ATIRs) in the face of other organized religions. Sociobiologists, have been intrigued by many subjects and “homosexuality” is one that has many still debating and trying to determine causation and origins.
MORAL-CULTURAL-SEXUAL TRIUMVIRATE:
Three points can be presented why the homosexuality debate endures:
It is tied to the morality of homosexuality, moralists argue that it is acted out sexually in a manner that is criminalized and apprehensible. Many tie it with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Religions around the world are platforms at which the debate still rages on. In Africa, this debate takes on personal inclinations, indigenous shades mixed with teachings of one’s professed faith. On one hand the methodists have stated their position on homosexuality in some of their manuals (http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/what-is-the-denominations-position-on-homosexuality). They state that homosexuality "clearly contradicts [their] understanding of Scripture (http://www.hrc.org/explore/topic/4957.htm). On the other are the Roman Catholics who tie it to natural physical laws and the teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual ethics (http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm). Her basic teaching is this: one can rightly choose to exercise one’s genital sexual powers only when one, as a spouse, freely chooses to engage in the conjugal act and, in that act, chooses to respect fully the goods of mutual self-giving and of human procreation. From this it follows that it is never morally right to unite sexually outside of marriage, i.e., to fornicate or commit adultery, or to masturbate or commit sodomy, i.e., have oral or anal intercourse, whether with a person of the opposite or of the same sex, nor ought one intentionally to bring about or maintain sexual arousal unless in preparation for the conjugal act (http://www.catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Veritas_CIS314.pdf).
Biological theorists have the ability to create a scientific environment to support their cause. For example, they argue that humans raised as children away from biological parents and native community, will develop with vastly different outcomes from biological siblings.
Social theorists may argue that monozygotic twins, one reared normally and the other raised in seclusion for 18 years, will also develop with vastly different results, but different even more from the first scenario (https://allpsych.com/journal/homosexuality/).
INTELLIGENCE DEFENSE (GENDER &SEXUALITY APARTHEID):
Five very powerful policy level arms or influencers on the African come into play whenever homosexuality on the African continent is mentioned. The medical world has presented its facts, especially the studies on the anatomical differences of the brain areas called suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and anterior commissure (AC) of the hypothalamus pointing to an embryological or biological determinism. All that remains is how: the development partners can promote the inclusive policies at work places and visa application opportunities for people persecuted because of their sexuality; the religious bodies; governments; and local domicile communities are ready invest in necessary social reforms (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/south-africa-progressive-lgbt-rights-gays-still-battle-social-reform-1471213), accept same-sex/gender loving people to lead peaceful thriving lives and ensure their integration in communities without persecution or harassment. Originally thought by the American Psychological Association (APA) to be a mental disorder, research into its causes, origins, and development have consequently led to its removal by the APA from its list of diagnoses and disorders (APA Online. “Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality”. Online. 11 April 2003. Available http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html).
APA currently states that sexual orientation is not a choice, rather that “…it emerges from most people in early adolescence with no prior sexual experience” (APA Online. “Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality”. Online. 11 April 2003. Available http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html). In 1994, the APA finally stated, “…homosexuality is neither a mental illness nor a moral depravity. It is the way a portion of the population expresses human love and sexuality” (“Biological Basis for Homosexuality.” Online. 8 April 2003. Available http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/boardwalk/7151/biobasis.html).
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