Professor Oye Gureje, Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Research in Mental Health, Neurosciences and Substance Abuse at the University of Ibadan, in an interview with SADE OGUNTOLA, explains the intertwining scientific, social, cultural, legal and religious complexity underlying homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
RECENTLY, a case of same sex marriage was aborted by the police in Delta State, Nigeria, amid rife cases of homosexuality the world over. Will legislation, as suggested by some people, curb it in Nigeria?
Yes, these issues are now increasingly being discussed everywhere. Same sex marriage is already criminal, as is homosexuality, in Nigeria and in some other countries like Uganda. There is the usual discussion about Europeans wanting to force their lifestyle on us. So, it is good to let people have a better understanding of issues around sexuality. First, marital relationship is largely a social, cultural and legal construct. Society defines how they want to organise it and what they accept as a legitimate marital relationship. So, society in Nigeria or elsewhere can say that culturally, socially, and legally, we do not want same-sex marriage. For instance, while polygamy is legal in Nigeria and because it is socially-constructed, it is illegal to have more than one wife in the United States, even though polygamy is a part of the traditional religious practice of the Mormons in that country.
In most societies, getting married to an underage person is frowned upon, in fact, it can be a criminal activity and regarded as paedophilia. On the other hand, whether you have sexual interest in the opposite sex or the same sex is biologically determined. Homosexuality is not something that people choose to be, it is what they are.
How do you mean?
It is biologically determined, that is how they have been made by nature. Homosexuality exists in every culture, even in the Bible, though it is not a common attribute among the majority of people, it is frowned upon. In fact, for many decades, homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in psychiatry and was seen as abnormal. But further studies about human sexuality have shown that the only thing that is different about gay people is their sexual orientation. We also know that sexual orientation is not black or white, it is not that everyone is either homosexual or heterosexual, and there are people in the middle and there are circumstances in which apparently heterosexual people display bisexuality.
As a psychiatrist, I have seen a few young people come to me who, on finding out that they are different sexually, become very anxious. Their colleagues are of heterosexual inclination and they are finding it difficult to know what to do about their own lack of interest in the opposite sex.
Now, because sexuality falls on a spectrum, it means that there are people who have heterosexual orientation and only have sexual attractions for the opposite sex. There are some others in the middle who can become attracted to either of the sexes. They are called bisexual. Homosexuals are at other end of the spectrum and they are only aroused by people of the same gender.
So, because sexuality along that spectrum is biologically determined, we shouldn’t really be legislating against homosexuality. We could, of course, legislate against paedophilia, because that involves underage persons who we need to protect. But paradoxically, in some societies, we allow people to marry underage girls, yet we criminalise adults who have consensual relationship.
Now, what has happened in the US and the United Kingdom (UK), for example, is that as knowledge of human sexuality becomes more widely available, they are becoming more liberally inclined towards homosexuality. That is why they are going so far as to allow them to get married, especially in their context, where marriage has a lot of legal implications in terms of such things as divorce and property rights and ownership. Even in those countries, there are large sections of the community that do not agree with same-sex marriage and still have antipathy towards homosexuals. So, it is not a matter of their culture having always been more tolerant to homosexuality. Sexuality is complex and associated with a lot of misunderstanding because it has science, culture, and religion, all intertwining.
If you are saying that sexuality is a spectrum, and that homosexuality is not abnormal, how do you explain the man who recently married a reptile?
Homosexuality is on the spectrum of normal human sexuality, even though it is at the fringe of it. Studies of homosexuals looking at their brains, their upbringing, and so on, have found that they are not different from other people. And it is also not because they have had unusual childhood or been maltreated as children. That is just the way they are. But we cannot extrapolate abnormality to normality, like in the case of a man getting married to a reptile, someone being sexually aroused by a woman’s shoes, or having sex with a dead body. We regard those as perversions in psychiatry and they require treatment. Homosexuality is not a perversion.
Indeed, we know from science and human development that, at some stage in adolescence, sexuality is very fluid. So you find young girls in the hostel falling in love with older girls, not homosexually, but really falling in love. The same thing happens among boys. But by the time they grow up, their sexuality becomes more defined. So you can describe them at that point as having more homosexual or bisexual tendencies, but as they grow up, they get out of that. They switch to the opposite sex. But some may not. Such people find that when their peers begin to show interest in girls or having girlfriends and talking about such things, it doesn’t interest them. Rather, what arouses or interests them is person of the same sex, which, of course, their friends or parents are going to frown at. And some do come out asking for help.
In many, but not all, Western countries, the psychological problems that people may have because of this trait have been largely addressed by encouraging people to open up. And this cuts across different classes of people, including prominent names in sports and the media, celebrities, musicians and politicians, which again negates the idea that homosexuality is part of their culture.
So, there are prominent people who are now openly gay, with some who had been married to persons of the opposite sex only to find that they couldn’t really cope, and that it is not a life for them. Elton John is a well-known musician; he actually was in heterosexual relationship which collapsed, and he has now been in a same-sex relationship for some years. They even have adopted children.
Can we, therefore, say that homosexuality is normal?
That is the point. This discussion is to emphasise its normality, even though it is not in the mainstream of sexuality. It is normal; it is just like somebody who is very short. Do we say that people who are midgets are not normal beings? They are not supposed to be discriminated against or stigmatised because they are normal. It is the same with homosexuals; they are at the fringe of normal sexuality.
Now Western society is opening up and accepting this normality. For example, secretary of transport in the US is openly gay and is married to a man. That wouldn’t have happened many years ago. On the other hand, while homosexuality is present in every culture, same-sex marriage which is socially constructed and determined, and which has become acceptable to Europeans may not be acceptable to us. We cannot be dictated to about it just like we cannot dictate to them to accept polygamy. Africans may say we are not ready or comfortable with same-sex marriage. We can legislate against, but we shouldn’t extend that to legislating against homosexuality. Perhaps, in the future, we may also legislate against polygamy or become more accepting of same-sex marriage. We can argue about whether either of that is right or not, but it is left to society to decide.
People talk about other forms of sex, such as oral and anal, including the use of sex toys and masturbation. How do you explain all these? Are they normal too?
Sexual practices are many, though some people, especially among the older generations, may regard some practices as abnormal. But these practices happen behind closed doors among normal couples in heterosexual relationships or couples.
Again, people, out of ignorance, say that masturbation is immoral, evil, dangerous and can lead to a physical illness. That is a myth and is not true. Masturbation is not abnormal; many masturbated when they were growing up. Some still do so regularly because they don’t have sex partners. Also, sex toys are implements used for the same purpose, sexual stimulation of oneself, more commonly among women. Women also masturbate with their hands or sex toys. There is nothing abnormal about masturbation, either physically or mentally. Of course, excessive preoccupation with sex, be it masturbation or sexual intercourse, may be problematic. So, there is a lot of erroneous information flying around on many issues about sexuality.
