Some churches purport to welcome people who have ‘homosexual feelings and emotions’ but encourage them to ‘work towards overcoming their harmful effects in their lives’. Some deny sacrament to people who participate in, or justify, homosexual acts.

However some Christian denominations are accepting of same-sex relationships, especially if they are monogamous. They do not view them as sinful or immoral. They are prepared to ‘bless’ the ‘union’ and consider it as valid ‘marriage’. They are even prepared to appoint clergy who are living in openly homosexual relationship into positions of leadership. The Anglican Communion world-wide is currently being riven apart by controversy surrounding this issue, with the mainstream Church under the aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury being keen to move forward with ‘liberalisation’, but a large faction led by the Nigerian Church unwilling to countenance such acceptance.

•Same sex marriage

The Islamic position is emphatic. There are said to be five references to gay and lesbian behaviour in the Koran, with two of them being key. One passage goes thus: ‘We also sent Lut: He said to his people ‘Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation ever committed before you? For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women. Ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.’

Another passage goes: ‘What! Of all creatures do you come onto the males, and leave the wives your lord created for you. Nay, but ye are forward folk.’

The mainstream tendency within the religion frowns severely at all homosexual activity, male or female. Some religion-based governments do more than just frown. It is said that over 4,000 people have been executed in Iran since the revolution in 1979 for homosexual activities. At least ten public executions are said to have been carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan for the same offence.

The perception of homosexuality from the point of view of African traditional religion is less precisely defined. According to some experts, homosexual activity figures in traditional religions and cultural relics. Some of the evidence adduced for the presence of homosexual behaviour in Yoruba folklore includes the ‘transvestite’ dressing of Sango, the god of thunder, a male entity who is always depicted with woven hair, wearing a skirt. Art works such Igbo Ukwu and Benin art depict images that have been interpreted to mean that the culture at source was accepting of same-sex relationships, or at least acknowledged the potential dualism of individual sexuality.
All of these details set the background for a contemporary controversy that has raged with a fresh fervour since the African nations of Uganda and Nigeria enacted legislation effectively criminalising the practice of homosexuality and imposing harsh penalties on homosexual ‘offenders’.

The Nigerian law, signed into force by President Jonathan on 13 January, 2014 prescribes a jail term of 14 years for anyone who gets involved in a homosexual marriage, engages in an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex, or joins a homosexual organisation. It bans gatherings of homosexuals, and imposes a jail term of ten years on any person who supports the registration, operation and sustenance of homosexual clubs, societies, organisations, processions or meetings in Nigeria.

A month after this law, an even more draconian law was enacted in Uganda, tagged the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. The original version of the law prescribed the death penalty for anyone engaging in same-sex relationship. This was ‘mellowed down’ to life imprisonment in the finished work. The law has penalties for individuals, corporate organisations, media organisations, and NGOs that give support to homosexuals or their rights. It even has a provision for Ugandans who engage in homosexual behaviour outside Uganda to be extradited back to Uganda for punishment. So extreme is the tone of this law that even traditional homophobes were observed to cringe in awe at some of its provisions. And indeed, despite the widely prevalent public sentiment against homosexuals in Ugandan society, the latest development in the Uganda saga is that the Constitutional Court on 1 August of this year ruled that the law was invalid.

The discussion is very polarised, and very polarising. The protagonists on both extremes expect people who side with them to do so ‘hook, line, and sinker’, otherwise they are the enemy. But a cursory look at the Nigerian law would show why even a person who is not particularly favourably disposed to homosexuality may balk at some of its provisions. Fourteen years in jail for getting into a homosexual marriage, or engaging in an intimate homosexual relationship, or joining a homosexual organisation! It is not difficult to pick holes in the logic. Fourteen years for a ‘marriage’ – homosexual or otherwise? Is it not easier for government to simply ban civil authorities from conducting such marriages, and insist any marriage which is conducted by any other body, whether ‘traditional’ or ‘religious’, would not be recognised? What about the one that is validly conducted in other countries where such ‘marriage’ is not illegal, where the ‘couple’ then travel to Nigeria? Would they be bundled straight to prison, whether they are Nigerian citizens or foreigners, or merely informed that their ‘union’ is not recognised as a valid marriage?