Oquaye: Homosexuality & lesbianism must stop now!

Prof. Mike Oquaye, MP for Dome-Kwabenya
The Second Deputy Speaker, Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye, walked to Parliament yesterday with a special message for Ghanaians. Homosexuality and Lesbianism, he said, must end now, since it was an abomination in the Ghanaian society.
“Madam Speaker, in recent times, homosexuality and lesbianism – sources of such strange diseases – have hit our shores. The stories we hear are very grim. In the Western nations, homosexuals are being ordained priests. Men are marrying men in the church, and women are marrying women, and they are being blessed in the Church. Today, there are special clubs, we are told, where our young men are sodomised on a regular basis.
“We read reports of how this has spread into our secondary schools. For how long should we simply look on? How do we have a society where a woman wife, who is married to a woman husband, buys sperm for insemination, gets pregnant, and the resultant child is taught to call a woman as father? I believe that these abominations will have to stop before the human race is destroyed by something worse than AIDS,” a calm looking Prof. Oquaye noted.
Prof. Oquaye, who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, delivered this statement on the floor of the Legislative House, in contribution to the official discovery of AIDS some thirty years ago.
He told the Legislative House that the time had come to re-examine the country’s laws and give them the requisite bite on issues bordering homosexuality and lesbianism.
“AIDS compels us to re-examine our law on rape, sexual molestation, sexual inducement, sexual abuse of all forms, and defilement among many others. Even when AIDS was not known, civilized society took grave exception to the forceful intimacy outside marriage, even where it took place among consenting adults. I am persuaded that the gravest affront to one’s God-given womanhood is rape and allied forcible attacks. To live with the possibility of the transmission of AIDS is adding insult to injury to the highest degree. This is a time to re-examine our laws, and give them the requisite bite,” he said.
The world, on Sunday, June 5, 2011, celebrated thirty years of the first official discovery of the dreaded HIV/AIDS. A new report, which was released simultaneously in New York and Geneva to commemorate the occasion, revealed that, globally, the rate of new infections of HIV had dropped by nearly 25 percent, between 2001 and 2009.
The report dubbed “AIDS at 30: Nations at the crossroads,” puts India and South Africa as countries having the largest number of people living with HIV on their continents, but recording a significant drop in the number of infections of the deadly virus.
In India, the rate of new HIV infections fell by more than 50%, and in South Africa, by more than 35%.
According to the report, about 6.6 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries at the end of 2010, a nearly 22-fold increase since 2001.
A record 1.4 million people started lifesaving treatment in 2010 – more than any year before. According to the report, at least 420,000 children were receiving antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2010, a more than 50% increase since 2008, when 275,000 children were on treatment.
According to Prof. Oquaye, Ghanaians must use to occasion for sober reflection and self-examination, since recent reports in the media about the seduction and abuse of innocent young women through various subterfuges, which constitute constructive rape and possible AIDS infection, are on the increase.
“On this occasion, let us watch these practices, sanitise our society, and save the human race, both from the dire consequences of our profligacy, as well as the wrath of the living God. Let us show love and care towards our countrymen and women who have unfortunately, caught the disease, and advise ourselves – all of our people – that AIDS is real and is a killer,” he emphasised.
Contributing to the statement was the MP for Wa West and Minister for Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh.
According to him, the Government of Ghana being committed to reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS in the country, had earmarked $2 million to help it deal with new cases of infection, whilst those already infected with the virus would continue to be provided with Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs.
He said pragmatic efforts put in place by successive governments since 1986, had successfully brought down the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and urged Ghanaians to go for medical examinations, in order to know their status, as far as HIV/AIDS was concerned.
“Test and know your status, and it will help you live a healthier life,” he said.
Also on the floor to contribute to the statement was the MP for Akwatia, Dr. Kofi Asare. According to him, the country needs to protect is citizenry from diseases. Safe sex, he said, was good, but stressed that homosexuality must be discouraged, since it was becoming a catastrophe for society.
He urged parents to strengthen their efforts by guiding and talking to their wards when going to school, so that they don’t end up practicing and becoming victims of homosexuality.