A quick and brief response to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's brief article titled why can’t he just be like everyone else?’ In Support of Gay life

When a child is allowed to eat continuously with the elders, certain things will come up. That child may quietly begin to learn from the discussions of the elders or if life has destined him to be a failure, he can gradually begin to grow wings thinking that in his youth, he is qualified to be called an elder all because he is allowed to seat on the table with the elders. Chy as I like to call her is a super author no doubt, one who has my urtmost respect and  admiration in every class of writing she has ventured into. I not only admire her, I love the simplicity with which she presents her piece, a style begging today's generation of writers  to stay simple and communicate simply. I lack when placed side by side with this award winning author the intellectual prowess  to begin to critique her work. She is known by the world and even if I decide to deny that, the earth on which I walk will remind me deep down, she stands. But be that as it may, when issues bothers on my country, my people, my land, Nigerian with all of its glorified corruption and mismanaged resources, I am passionate. I am because I belong to that school of thought which holds that, it can only take long, some day, some how, those who steal from us will crawl on their knee and beg us. But at that time, it will be too late. I believe In Nigeria and those who steal from her will have God some day to answer to here on earth and in the world beyond because even by the faith of ten, this country will change. 

I read the argument or perhaps simple opinion presented by my sister chy, in support of gay law or to be fair to what she wrote, against the criminalizing of gay life. Though Chys argument was smooth, yes no man decides how he becomes or we don't criminalize adulatory no, we don't. But she was asked a simple question , did she answer it? no. Hear the question..."An acquaintance recently asked me, ‘if  you support gays, how would you have been born?’ Of course, there were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay people have existed as long as humans have existed. They have always been a small percentage of the human population. We don’t know why. What matters is this: Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a crime"  Chy , you did not answer the simple question. Perhaps, you did not have the answer. The answer to that question in truth, would have formed the possible introduction, the body, argument and conclussion of everything you wrote on this subject. Let me answer that question for you, if being gay formed the basis of our human existence, you chy, would never have been born. In truth, one of the basic gain  of man and even animals is procreation. In gayism, if you allow me put it that way, you cannot procreate. Also, I like your argument or position which did not attempt to make it the norm, but present an emotional argument saying, they have always been in the minority. Chy, this will not sell. That still did not answer the question. In life , opposite attracts. It is the man to the woman. Even you chy know this truth. Why dint you marry a woman and feel cool with it? The answer is simple, it is because, even you, chy, know the truth. 

In America today, it is said that, to mention God in publics is not allowed because it infringes on the right of others. We know that much. It's now a free society and don't forget my sister that freedom comes with a lot of responsibility. Their society is paying the prize for it. You can watch the news yourself. Even your Nigerian brothers and sisters are being murdered because of the insanity that the removal of God from their culture has caused. Well, we are not ready to go that way. The non removal of God and his ways from our culture may not have done much for us, but it has helped us maintain our sanity. People don't just decide to walk into a mall and start shooting except for those who kill in The name of the same God and an act they carry out because those who should, have not showed enough courage in wanting to stop them.  Chy, we love the way we are. We don't need the acceptance of the western world if that is what you wrote this article to achieve. If criminalizing it is the only way to get people to come out of this way of life, so be it. The government have my full and unalloyed support on this. Believe me when I say that does not mean I hate gay people, it only means I will continue to love them enough to help them see why they should consider becoming normal . Does it mean they are considered by me to be abnormal, in truth, the gay life to me does not seem normal. This is my point. See below for Chimamanda's article.

Why can’t he just be like everyone else?’   written by award winning writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
In secondary school, some boys in his  class tried to throw Sochukwuma off a second floor balcony. They were  strapping teenagers who had learned to notice, and fear, difference.  They had a name for him. Homo. They mocked him because his hips swayed  when he walked and his hands fluttered when he spoke. He brushed away  their taunts, silently, sometimes grinning an uncomfortable grin. He  must have wished that he could be what they wanted him to be. I imagine  now how helplessly lonely he must have felt. The boys often asked, “Why  can’t he just be like everyone else?”
Possible answers to that question  include ‘because he is abnormal,’ ‘because he is a sinner, ‘because he  chose the lifestyle.’ But the truest answer is ‘We don’t know.’ There is humility and humanity in accepting that there are things we simply don’t know. At the age of 8, Sochukwuma was obviously different.  It was not about sex, because it could not possibly have been – his hormones were of course not yet fully formed – but it was an awareness of  himself, and other children’s awareness of him, as different. He could  not have ‘chosen the lifestyle’ because he was too young to do so. And why would he – or anybody – choose to be homosexual in a world that  makes life so difficult for homosexuals?
The new law that criminalizes homosexuality is popular among Nigerians. But it shows a failure of our democracy, because the mark of a true democracy is not in the rule of its majority but in the protection of its minority – otherwise mob justice would be considered democratic. The law is also unconstitutional, ambiguous, and a strange priority in a country with so many real problems. Above all else, however, it is unjust. Even if this was not a country of abysmal electricity supply where university graduates are barely literate and people die of easily-treatable causes and Boko Haram commits casual mass murders, this law would still be unjust.  We cannot be a just society unless we are able to accommodate benign difference, accept benign difference, live and let live. We may not understand homosexuality, we may find it personally abhorrent but our response cannot be to criminalize it.
A crime is a crime for a reason. A crime has victims. A crime harms society. On what basis is homosexuality a crime? Adults do no harm to society in how they love and whom they love. This is a law that will not prevent crime, but will, instead, lead to crimes of violence: there are already, in different parts of Nigeria, attacks on people ‘suspected’ of being gay. Ours is a society where men are openly affectionate with one another. Men hold hands. Men hug each other. Shall we now arrest friends who share a hotel room, or who walk side by side? How do we determine the clunky expressions in the law – ‘mutually beneficial,’ ‘directly or indirectly?’
Many Nigerians support the law because they believe the Bible condemns homosexuality. The Bible can be a basis  for how we choose to live our personal lives, but it cannot be a basis  for the laws we pass, not only because the holy books of different  religions do not have equal significance for all Nigerians but also  because the holy books are read differently by different people. The Bible, for example, also condemns fornication and adultery and divorce,  but they are not crimes.
For supporters of the law, there seems to be something about homosexuality that sets it apart. A sense that it is not ‘normal.’ If we are part of a majority group, we tend to think  others in minority groups are abnormal, not because they have done  anything wrong, but because we have defined normal to be what we are and since they are not like us, then they are abnormal. Supporters of the  law want a certain semblance of human homogeneity. But we cannot  legislate into existence a world that does not exist: the truth of our  human condition is that we are a diverse, multi-faceted species. The  measure of our humanity lies, in part, in how we think of those  different from us. We cannot – should not – have empathy only for people who are like us.
Some supporters of the law have asked –  what is next, a marriage between a man and a dog?’ Or ‘have you seen  animals being gay?’ (Actually, studies show that there is homosexual  behavior in many species of animals.) But, quite simply, people are not  dogs, and to accept the premise – that a homosexual is comparable to an  animal – is inhumane. We cannot reduce the humanity of our fellow men  and women because of how and who they love. Some animals eat their own  kind, others desert their young. Shall we follow those examples, too?
Other supporters suggest that gay men  sexually abuse little boys. But pedophilia and homosexuality are two  very different things. There are men who abuse little girls, and women  who abuse little boys, and we do not presume that they do it because  they are heterosexuals. Child molestation is an ugly crime that is  committed by both straight and gay adults (this is why it is a crime:  children, by virtue of being non-adults, require protection and are  unable to give sexual consent).
There has also been some nationalist  posturing among supporters of the law. Homosexuality is ‘unafrican,’  they say, and we will not become like the west. The west is not exactly a homosexual haven; acts of discrimination against homosexuals are not  uncommon in the US and Europe. But it is the idea of ‘unafricanness’  that is truly insidious. Sochukwuma was born of Igbo parents and had  Igbo grandparents and Igbo great-grandparents. He was born a person who  would romantically love other men. Many Nigerians know somebody like  him. The boy who behaved like a girl. The girl who behaved like a boy.  The effeminate man. The unusual woman. These were people we knew, people like us, born and raised on African soil. How then are they  ‘unafrican?’
If anything, it is the passage of the  law itself that is ‘unafrican.’ It goes against the values of tolerance  and ‘live and let live’ that are part of many African cultures. (In  1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular musician, a man who dressed  like a woman, wore makeup, plaited his hair. We don’t know if he was gay  – I think he was – but if he performed today, he could conceivably be  sentenced to fourteen years in prison. For being who he is.) And it is  informed not by a home-grown debate but by a cynically borrowed one: we  turned on CNN and heard western countries debating ‘same sex marriage’  and we decided that we, too, would pass a law banning same sex marriage. Where, in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, has any homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?
This is an unjust law. It should be repealed. Throughout history, many inhumane laws have been passed, and  have subsequently been repealed. Barack Obama, for example, would not be here today had his parents obeyed American laws that criminalized  marriage between blacks and whites.

I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin,  smiling boy who liked to play with us girls at the university primary  school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he was different, we said,  ‘he’s not like the other boys.’ But his was a benign and unquestioned  difference; it was simply what it was. We did not have a name for him.  We did not know the word ‘gay.’ He was Sochukwuma and he was friendly  and he played oga so well that his side always won.

 

An acquaintance recently asked me, ‘if  you support gays, how would you have been born?’ Of course, there were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay people have existed as long as humans have existed. They have always been a small percentage of the human population. We don’t know why. What matters is this: Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a crime.