“As a person, as an individual, I abhor homosexuality. It does not conform with my religious beliefs. It does not conform with my religious beliefs at all and I believe that those engaged in homosexuality, maybe, have some psychological problems. Maybe they are people that, maybe, have some problems that need counseling. They need to be talked to and sensitised. Let me not say sensitisation because that will be admitting that it is rampant when in the provinces no one has ever heard A and B being called homosexuals. I had never heard the word homosexual in Mandinka Kay wudeh until one or two years ago. I had never heard it. If the incident was so rampant, at my age, I would have known what is Kay wudeh in Mandinka.”
Pressed whether he supports the signing into law of stringent anti-gay laws by the president given his expression of abhorrence for the practice, he replied: “I do no support it. If the government really wants to do that, they have to have punitive legislation against prostitution. They say the whole idea behind all this is to maintain the morals of society and prostitution runs contrary to our morals. I abhor it and my religion does not accept it, but I do not think that legislation is the panacea to it. You legislate and criminalise conduct that is rampant and you want to provide deterrence to it. How many people have been arrested for being involved in homosexual activities here since they started their ‘No To EU’ campaign two, three years ago? I am sure if there was legislation against prostitution, they could have picked up quite a few people with their pimps and have them prosecuted.
“When they say it threatens extinction of human race, what is the empirical date that shows it causes it? What is the empirical data of the number of men who are homosexual and yet do not engage in heterosexual activities? We have read in the newspaper and seen on television in other countries people who confessed to being homosexuals yet raised families. And they have biological offspring, not adopted. So, I don’t know what extinction they are talking about. What is very much militating against us is that our kids are dying from preventable diseases and that is what we should be addressing not homosexuality. If we address that, we will have longer lives and we will have a population growing in good health”.
]]>
