Gay debate: Conservatives must up their game

Article 25, however, does not include this guarantee among those that may not be limited.

Nevertheless, the only constitutional exclusion of homosexuals is contained in article 45(2) that extends the right to marriage only to persons of opposite sexes.

Thus, homosexuals may not marry, yet nothing in the Constitution prohibits them from freely associating and enjoying the full benefits of the Bill of Rights.

Recall that we are all enjoined to interpret and construe the Constitution in as liberal and purposive a manner as to expand to the maximum the enforcement and enjoyment of rights.

Finally, the legal conservatives must have to reckon with a fundamental challenge: is it the proper place of law to voyeuristically delve into the private affairs of consenting adults?

Granted, the LGBT movement threatens to radically overthrow our conception of gender distinctions, in particular the nature and role of masculinity, the conflict between the injunction to extend our circle of moral consideration to “gentiles” versus the need to enforce religious mores.

In a fast evolving global culture, all these controversies, as well as the ethical, moral, legal, religious and social dilemmas engendered by the expansion of knowledge and the rise of science and technology, are par for the course.

Nevertheless, seeing the sophisticated ideological grounding of the LGBT movement against the weak and trite rationale of its antagonists, I believe it’s time that Kenyan society reflected more deeply and evolved sounder counter-arguments.

This will elevate the discourse to a more productive level than the arrant homophobia presently passing as moral objection, and possibly empower the conservative majority. The debate, in its present format, simply won’t do.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court ng_eno@yahoo.com: Kwendo Opanga resumes next week.