SHOULD HOMOSEXUALS BE ALLOWED TO MARRY?

SHOULD HOMOSEXUALS BE ALLOWED TO MARRY? 

 

 One of the most prominent headlines in international news recently is the United States Supreme Court judgement on gay marriage. The gay rights issue has generated a lot of controversy around the world. Some countries support the move while others antagonise it as an abnormal act. According to many sources, the decision of the US supreme court to allow gay marriage is the most astonishing move in recent times. The historic Judgement which proclaims that gay like every human being has every rights to be happy has raised many voices for and against the subject.  The US president Barack Obama congratulated the gay community in America saying the ruling has changed the country.  

According to Shima Gyoh Professor at Benue State University,  ''Homosexuality is just the way the brains of some people mature with inverted sexual orientation, when men feel sexual attraction to other men, and women to other women. Family and environmental circumstances have very little if any influence on this phenomenon. It is one of the naturally occurring variations in nature. The fact is that the people affected cannot change their sexual orientation, just like you cannot change your height no matter how hard you tried.
For a long time, it used to be thought it was a crime, and laws were made to punish the people affected, but about 60 years ago, knowledge of human development made the enlightened world realise that it was a frequent variation in nature. Even the medical world at first thought it was a mental disease and methods of treatment, called abreaction were painful and nasty at...tempts to “cure” the affected people were applied. The medical world soon realised that no amount of torture could change this deep-seated nature, which happens to be the way some people are.  Outlawing homosexuality is equivalent to passing a law that being shorter than 5 feet is now a crime! It amounts to condemning some people to a life of suffering for being who they are. It is an unjust discrimination, which no enlightened or kind person should tolerate, no matter how squirmy they feel about it. Speaking further, the professor said, ''I have conducted an unsuccessful campaign to stop the legislation against homosexuality in Nigeria.''

 

Homosexuality is a taboo in Nigerian culture. It is widely believed that people cultivate the behaviour out of curiosity or experimentation. The questions are: Are homosexuals born that way or do they become that way? Is the condition a disease? Is it right to criminalise homosexuality in Nigeria as it was done under the administration of President Goodlcuk Jonathan?