Let us attack homophobia, not gays

The new Constitution protects gays and lesbians. Why? Because its Bill of Rights protects the rights of all, not just a chosen few.

Any first year law student knows this simple and clear statement of fact and law is unarguable.

The Constitution protects everyone who is in Kenya – citizens and non-citizens alike – from discriminatory and capricious treatment.

Nowhere does the Constitution say that gays are excluded from such protection. That’s why the call by Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi to accept gays is the right one.

The hysterical demand by evangelicals and homophobes that minister Murugi be sacked is nutty. Homophobic extremists – many of them unable to articulate a respectable and coherent argument – have exposed themselves with the most benighted stereotypes.

But I am buoyed by the surprisingly large number of Kenyans who support gay rights. I am now convinced that most anti-gay crusaders are ignorant and deathly scared of thinking seriously about sexuality, especially their own.

That’s why today I want to dispense a little education and demystify some archaic and unscientific hang-ups.

But I want to state the bottom line upfront. No individual of honour ever steps on a person who is down.

Only cowards and hate mongers spit on those who are unpopular or marginalised. It is true that irrational hatred is often driven by the fear of self. This is the case with racists, tribalists, sexists, misogynists, exploiters, and religious zealots.

These malignant characters are secretly afraid that their hypocrisies will be exposed. Their inadequacies haunt them. They oppress others to cover up their guilt and “justify” their power.

This pedagogy of the oppressor leads to brutalities against the weak, the exploited, and the minority.

This explains the brutality of colonialists against “natives”.

There is no doubt that homophobia is driven by heterosexual fear. That is why it is important to understand heterosexuality as more than sexual orientation.

Heterosexism is the ideology of heteropatriarchy, which is rule by heterosexual men. Heteropatriarchy is a power structure that controls states and its institutions. Political power – and the law – exist to serve heterosexism and to suppress other sexual orientations.

Sodomy and other laws “against nature” are designed to vanquish non-heterosexuals. The Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – have captured the moral character of state power in favour of heterosexism.

That is why most states, including those that claim to be secular political democracies, are homophobic.
Let me address the man and woman in the mirror, the quintessential heterosexuals.

I want to challenge you with a blunt statement – you know very little about homosexuality. In fact, I bet you have trouble defining the terms used to name sexual minorities. Do you know the difference between gays and lesbians?

Who are homosexuals and how do they differ from those who are transgender, transsexual, and bisexual?
If you think these terms describe “perverts” then you need some enlightenment.

What you need to know is that these sexual orientations have existed in every society since the beginning of time. I concede they are a minority, but hatred or oppression will not make them go away. They are here to stay.

Let me explode a few myths about gays. First, you should know gays are not responsible for HIV/Aids. While it is true that a large number of the early HIV/Aids cases in the United States were among the gay population, they did not originate the disease.

You should know that the vast majority of HIV/Aids cases in Kenya are spread through heterosexual sex. Secondly, you should know that most gay people were “born” gay. For them, it is not a choice.

Their “state of being” is as real as their skin colour, race, hair texture, intelligence and other physical and metaphysical characteristics.
These are basic indisputable scientific facts. I have heard the argument that a small percentage of people choose to be gay.

Quite frankly, such an assertion does not change my argument or alter the fact that we must treat all human beings equally.

Finally, the fact that two homosexuals cannot “biologically” conceive a baby is immaterial – there are many heterosexuals who can’t or choose not to have children.

I want my readers to think of sexuality in more complex and nuanced ways. Scientific evidence shows that human sexuality is neither black, nor white.

Most people are neither wholly gay, nor wholly straight.

Human sexuality sits on a pendulum, a sliding scale. Large numbers of people have proclivities both ways. This is not conjecture but scientific fact.

Put simply, it means that there is a little bit of “gay” in most heterosexuals and a little bit of “heterosexual” in most gays.

It seems that one is either “gay” or “heterosexual” based on where the pendulum falls as well as other social factors.

There is some evidence that some virulent homophobes are gays who are either too afraid to find out or too scared socially to come out. Such people lead a life of torture and denial.

I think it is great that Kenya is having this debate on gay rights. But it is important that the debate be informed by fact – not myth, stereotype and fiction.

We need to take emotion out of the debate and seriously interrogate our biases and prejudices.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.