Legislating on sexuality is an exercise in futility
What you need to know:
- Open talk: There is need to debate and close the matter on gays but the discussion should not be led by clowns.
- For a long time, a sanctimonious fragment of our society has fought hard against people they perceive to engage in ‘immoral’ acts.
A commonly ignored tenet in public discourse is that although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, such opinion does not have the right to be automatically respected.
It can be shredded, rubbished or praised on its own merits, without regard to who expressed it.
A good demonstration of this tenet was at play this past week when someone brought a draft Bill to the National Assembly, proposing to stone to death people expressing sexual orientations other than heterosexuality.
It is right and proper that we allow such individuals and groups to express themselves, and even file petitions with government agencies in pursuit of their own aims and objectives.
However, such expressions, once they are out there, are subject to close examination. There have been expressions of support for action against homosexuals, although not everyone would go as far as advocating for their stoning to death as a legislative measure.
In my view, however, it would be a sad day for Kenya if anyone leaves with the impression that we are unanimous on this subject, and that we all endorse this treatment of any segment of our population.
'IMMORAL' ACTS
For a long time, a sanctimonious fragment of our society has fought hard against people they perceive to engage in ‘immoral’ acts.
We have all agreed when the moralists advocate for more severe penalties for those that kill and maim others for whatever reason. We have been together in tackling the corruption culture that continues to hobble any attempts at economic development in this country.
Together we have planned interventions to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Sadly, though, the moralists have often lost the plot when they have ventured into the territory of judging people’s private consensual sexual behaviours, and suggesting legislative and other steps to force them to conform to what is considered ‘normal’.
First, they have attempted to foist homosexuality and other types of sexual orientation on the scientific community, insisting that they should be treated as mental disorders.
The scientific community has studied these claims, and put them to the strict standards for all mental disorder criteria, and found them wanting.
Despite tremendous pressure to consider non-heterosexual sexual orientation as mental illness in and of itself, the ‘disorder’ was struck off the list of mental disorders more than 40 years ago.
Now the moralists have discovered allies in our chaotic legislature, and will attempt to go beyond the dictates of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution to legislate punishment for homosexual orientation and behaviour.
Unfortunately, they have chosen to mess up their own agenda by choosing a set of clowns to craft a piece of legislation that would not even be tabled in a self-respecting legislative body.
This almost definitely guarantees its failure on the floor of the House.
SOBER AND OPEN DEBATE
One almost wishes that the conservative lobby had drafted a better piece of legislation in order to encourage a more sober and open debate on human sexuality and its interface with the legal justice system.
In my view, there still exists an opportunity for us to do this and finally conclude the circuitous quarrels we have on this subject.
After an exhaustive treatment of the subject, it will become clear that legislating victimless crimes involving sexual attitudes, feelings and consensual behaviours between individuals is a waste of resources that could be put to better use.
Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine. [email protected]
