My nation is in labour; her waters just broke! But not a while ago, she nursed a miscarriage; the under developed and immature “Kill the Gays Bill” was brought to table before it met the full nine months of anti body nourishment by the mother and consequently ,it was aborted! The same uninformed people (undernourished mothers) are grooming yet another bill which is mimicking under the shelter “regulating the activities of the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)”.
This bill is indirectly targeting the few existing organizations which have sought to address the issues of the sexual minorities and other key populations with listening and understanding ears; a warm blanket for the LGBTIs. There is no form of knowledge, however, that has been sought by the misinformed statesmen whose judicial positions give them the mandate to draft a bill that convicts innocent people to life time imprisonment. The arguments based on culture, religion and western influence are rather too raw and inhumane with uninformed reasoning. If the following sentiments are understood, I doubt my nation shall find the AHA relevant:
The binary model of sex: For so long a time, LGBTI activists have tried to create an understanding about sexual orientation and gender, although society is still centered to defining someone’s sex by male or female; conforming to the anatomical tests rather than the hormonal tests. The spectrum of sexuality exists, however, for example; when a child is born with both the male and female anatomical features (intersex); do they confer to being called male or female?! In addition, in some men the urethral opening is on the underside of his penis rather than at the tip! All these and many more disorders of sex development are limitations to the binary model of sex. This is evidenced in the anatomy of sex development between five and six weeks of embryo development where the embryo has the potential to form both male and female anatomical plans.
Trying to upload the science into the faces of the ignorant , I am sure the vibrant parliamentarian Doctor, Medard Bitekyerezo will find this true, at the end of the second trimester of pregnancy, the gonad switches on the developmental pathway to become an ovary or a testis. In situations where the testis develops, it secretes testosterone, which supports the development of the male ducts. It also makes other hormones that force the presumptive uterus and fallopian tubes to shrink away. If the gonad becomes an ovary, it makes oestrogen, and the lack of testosterone causes the male plumbing to wither. These hormones too play a critical role in the development of the external genitalia, and climax their action at puberty, triggering the development of secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts or facial hair. Changes to any of these processes can have dramatic effects on an individual’s sex. Gene mutations affecting gonad development can result in a person with XY chromosomes developing typically female characteristics, whereas alterations in hormone signaling can cause XX individuals to develop along male lines. Credit to Claire Ainsworth
To put it more politely, some men have vaginas while some women have penises. This is the gap that the team of scientists the President of Uganda appointed to make an exclusive report about homosexuality forgot to document! Ideally these scientists committed treason; for their ignorance of basic science cost the nation not just a handful of dollars but also the freedom of innocent Ugandans who by the passing of the “Kill the Gay Bill” were most affected. It is ironical that, the would-be most informed sect of people turns out to be ignorant of what seems quite obvious! The understanding and adoption of the spectrum of sex rather than the binary model of sex should be the genesis of acceptance of the intersex, understanding the transgender persons and for the most obvious reasons, the gays and the lesbians. Claire Ainsworth just summarizes it all “if you want to know whether someone is male or female, it may be best just to ask”.
The genetics of same sex behavior: It isn’t far away from yesterday when the gallant parliamentarians were gifted with Ipads! I want to be sure they are in adhesion with the recent developments in science. To begin with, whereas this may seem unreal just like homosexuality seems to many! The fly Drosophila Melanogaster is a potent animal model in modern science based research but most importantly the study of genetics. Whereas the genetics of same sex behavior in humans is not understood fully, genetic models of co dominance and sexual antagonism have proved to bring light at the end of the tunnel. “Researchers may have just found a benefit conferred by homosexual sex that could offer an explanation as to why this behavior has persevered, at least in one species. According to a new study in fruit flies, not only does same-sex sexual behavior seem to be heritable, but females with a genetic makeup associated with this trait actually display higher reproductive rates, which is an evolutionary advantage. These fascinating findings have been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. If a certain trait or behavior is detrimental to the reproductive success, or fitness, of an organism, you wouldn’t expect it to persist in the population as natural selection should get rid of it. After all, the aim of the reproductive game is to keep your genes going. Why, then, do members of the same sex cop off with each other in so many species? The scientists concluded that Males (fruit flies) with a genetic makeup associated with high levels of SSB (same sex behavior) produced female offspring with higher rates of reproduction, or fecundity. This suggests that genes associated with SSB could be persisting in the population because they actually confer a fitness advantage in females, despite being reproductively harmful to males”. Credit to I fuckinglovescience.
This trails in at a point when studies on cannabis sativa have confirmed that it cures a number of health hazards, needless to say factual science is seeming to be an antagonist to ordinary socio-cultural beliefs. 0ver 15,000 species of animals exhibit same sex behavior, therefore, it is not out of western influence or the world coming to an end (most believers say), that we have sexuality wars but it is a humanity value that has existed since the Biblical times. I predict that if similar studies were done in humans, then the scientific evidence would be more relevant but it still stands that homosexuality is a form of sexuality that exists in animals (humans belong to kingdom animalia too) and could actually have an evolutionary advantage.
Homosexuality and Africa: New studies by the influential Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) – on the science of human sexual diversity have found out that there is “no evidence that orientation can be altered by therapy or that being gay is contagious.” The report also rubbishes the idea that individuals have adopted homosexuality because of Western influences. It states: “There is no basis for the view that homosexuality is ‘un-African’ either in the sense of it being a ‘colonial import’, or on the basis that prevalence of people with same-sex or bisexual orientations is any different in African countries compared to countries on any other continent.” This serves in interest of the LGBTI persons whose love is considered illegal (against canon law of nature). The myth of considering homosexuality as western attire forced on Africans was recently elevated by the UN which called for the decriminalization of homosexuality.
But it’s the UN which reminded us that women need to be lifted up; they are no longer secondary citizens like they used to be nowadays, the disabled too have rights now, people living with HIV too today have rights but when they remind us to give the LBTI persons rights we call it impersonification. We must realize that most of the trendy developments especially about the human rights have always been backed by the western world. We have simply not understood our culture and beliefs and that’s why we celebrate the Uganda Martyrs with heavy smiles.
