Myth busting Queer Realities

In this episode we would be dismantling harmful stereotypes using scientific research and real lived experiences. From exposing the dangers of conversion therapy to proving that diverse identities are natural, we leave no myth unchallenged. Get ready for an honest conversation that replaces prejudice with understanding and inclusion.

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

Mind you, when they leave queer people, they are coming to women. When they leave women, they are coming to children. And so if today you feel like it's a queer person, so let's kill them tomorrow, it will be you.

SPEAKER_05 0:36

Whether it's myths about our identity, relationships, or the community as whole. We are here to set the record straight and provide facts, nothing more, nothing less. As we separate truth from fiction and celebrate the diversity and complexity of queer lives. Somebody here. Somebody here. Someone is always here, ready to listen. Let's talk. And this is going to be an open conversation. I'm your host, the Alpha Female. Welcome to Rainbow Highlights Podcast. Since it's going to be an open conversation, we would want to dissect various misconceptions that have been said about or people have about the queer community. What have you heard? What's the word on the streets?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

They also say, Oh, um, these people, these people have sex with animals.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

I've had an encounter with a friend who came to text me on WhatsApp. Why are you supporting these people? These people that just be in the LGBT stand for bestiality. And I said, Do you even use your Google at all? Like, why don't you just go search? What do you mean by bestiality? What can what can it be?

SPEAKER_06 2:31

What can it be? Ah, but I care. They want a G boy. This is so I'm a fear walking, I make casini. I mean, you if you are an LGBT person, and then you you have your you are a taboo. So your family, whenever there is a problem in your family, you are the reason why the problems are coming.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

People also think that intersex people are all homophobites. And then the intersex people need to be fixed. And then it's like um we've not come well, or I'm by you like so mevenu that you boomone. So let's change face for it. Let it go and come back again. Also think that so long as you are intersexed, you need to be on treatment. You cannot be intersex and be a man. You cannot be intersex, so always it's only women who should be intersexed. And as an intersex person, you should look a certain way. You should have a bit of to say down syndrome, which is not so. And people also think intersex is not common, but it is very common. It's easier to have an intersex child than identical twins. And intersex is not the reason why people are 100% uh infeminine, that intersex people are 100% infertile and and all that. A lot of intersex people have children. So if someone has a child doesn't mean that the person cannot be an intersex person, and fertility is one contributing factor. A lot of intersex people go through fertility challenges, but it's not a general thing for everybody. So let us know that the fact that someone is intersect doesn't mean the person is half male or female, but the person is a unique identity on its own.

SPEAKER_05 4:21

For me, the most ridiculous of all the misconceptions is the fact that people actually think that 99.99% of Ghana's challenges is not as a result of bad governance, it's as a result of LGBTQI plus persons present in this country. Like I I I saw um a thread on Facebook where someone was actually saying that we need to go back to the god who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because Ghana, LGBT people want to steal their country. They want to dominate the country, and so we are set for doom. So Christians need to come together and pray and hedge Ghana of LGBT.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

So we are contaminated the holy land.

SPEAKER_05 5:10

Yes. You are the abomination that is driving the abomination to this country. It's not bad, governance.

SPEAKER_07 5:23

The conversation that LGBTQI persons are pedophiles and the only engaging minors. Children cannot consent, and so nobody should have any sexual activity with any child. We don't care whether the child is effeminate or they are masculine. Children are children. Allow children to be children so that our future can be bright.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Intersex view many business. Back in the days, we saw that even twins were thrown away at some point. And we got to understand that twins were not a taboo. The same way with intersex and queer and general diverse persons. We are not an abomination. I know the reason why it is not raining, I know the reason why the economy of Ghana and in rural areas, many of the mothers who give birth to interest children are fine to pay sheep and uh snap and drinks for bringing busu to the community. Let's stop this evil agenda. And the children are killed. Just imagine a mother carrying a child for nine months, and then you kill the child, and you find the same mother to pay sheep to cleanse the land. How bad is that the fault of the mother? Let's stop this. This is a myth.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, and one mate is that oh, queer people are aliens. They are some people like because they feel like um LGBTQI plus. It's a it's a it's a foreign concept. So um queer people are aliens and there are no let me tell you, queer people have been in existence since the creation of time. We um we've been in existence and we are not going anywhere. Before this, they brought in these colonial laws to come and um criminalize um queer people and the rest. Our traditions have portrayed peanuts. All our traditional religion has portrayed peanuts and we can see it. We can we see it every time. So um let us understand that queer people have been in existence and they are not going anywhere. The race of queer people doesn't mean that queer people are going somewhere, they are not going anywhere. They'll be here and they'll they will still survive.

SPEAKER_06 7:47

Um, can my can climb me this morning? Yo, Jimmy, one you more. You can be by war. I'm queer. Yo, Jimmy, one more you can lent all. We are queer, one. Queerness, it's not a bad thing. It's not evil. When you are queer, you are fine. You are queer, you are lazy. That is where the problem is. You have to work. Don't be queer and be lazy. Be queer and work. Be queer and need, obje, libish and nigga, show down by clean no way. No gin, no need. But don't be queer and then obey you know, joy.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Sarah said you can't be queer, you can't be gay and be poor.

SPEAKER_07 8:47

I swear. It's not even nice to be gay and be poor. Yeah. Also, not the mean time, my reaction. J L D B T B in K H I D Baj Lemi. HIV is HIV, and it is an illness. It is not an illness that is targeted for queer people. Hedgew people have HIV. Even sometimes children that are even in the womb have HIV. And so, why are people saying that monkey paws or any calamity? I even heard that COVID-19 was queer people that brought it. It was if it was queer people that brought it, did queer people suck it? Because as COVID is gone, queer people are still here. Yeah. We should read more. Have facts than emotional sentiments. To differentiate between somebody lying to you, somebody who has a sweet tongue, somebody who is using emotion and religion to push hate. Mind you, when they leave queer people, they are coming to women. When they leave women, they are coming to children. And so if today you feel like it's a queer person, so let's kill them, tomorrow it will be you.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

And then let me also add that having an intersex child is not because the parents are confused that the mother wants a girl, the father wants a boy, they are quarreling and having a fight, and they give birth to one who is both. It is a myth, it's a lie. And to hear people who are like a health minister saying such things is very wrong, it's misleading, and it's a misformation. No parent will get a child because the father and mother are praying and asking for the different sexes, and God joined it for them. It's a lie, it's not a confusion. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Oh wow. I've also heard that many people say that um being queer is contagious. So, like if I'm queer, you come and sit next to me. The next moment you go home and you the spirit baffle. That's what they say. This is something that I I used to be guilty of when I was in senior high school. I remember there were rumors of people who were queer back in school, and my my schoolmother would say, Hey, don't sit next to them, don't sit next to them, don't infect you. Hey, it's spiritual. Get up, get up, and I'll also be running because I don't want to be infected. And here I am, after so many years, I've been infected.

SPEAKER_07 11:09

They're holding the flag so high. Yeah. It's amazing, right? How peer narratives are used to also help queer people. As queer people, too, when we get the opportunity to sit on radios, to be interviewed, or to be hosted in the place, let's use that to educate people that being queer is also a human right. Because people are born that way, people are who they are. If people don't come and then say that I was born on Hector, somebody will also not come and say I was born queer. People are who they are. Mind you, the word of God says that before you were formed, I knew you. So if God knew that you were because God is a God that knows everything, because He doesn't make mistakes. And so if we believe in that on other issues, let's also respect the fact that people are who they are, and as queer people, we are the best and will continue to be the best because we cannot afford to be a minority all the time.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, and um, as we are having this conversation, I also think this thing has also this misconception that there are some which is within the community itself where um we have queer people who have some ideology about their fellow queer people, especially effeminate men will be seen or effeminate men, people see them and they think for instance in the in the in the in the general spectrum spectrum, people say that oh um effeminate men are queer. Not all effeminate men are queer. Sexuality is different from how someone someone presents themselves or how someone sees a physical appearance. Again, um within the queer space, when you see a feminine person, don't also think that oh a feminine person, you are a bottom. When when you see when you see when you see um someone who is masculine representing to a masculine representing woman should not wear kids because I I I have people will be like I have an issue when I see my masculine representing female wearing escape. This these are all misconceptions, and I think people's preferences, what people want to um what want to um associate themselves with, should be they should be allowed to be themselves. When someone wants to be themselves, they should be allowed to be themselves. We shouldn't project our ideologies and how we see things onto people. Again, what I also want to say is that um we do have this narrative that narrative that when you see two gay men in a relationship, people be asking who is the man and who is the woman. Please, these are two men in a relationship, and that is okay. It shouldn't be who is the man and who is the woman. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Okay, so I also want to add that um there is no register there, there's no association there that we join that once you said okay, I joined, I become rich. I joined and they give you money, they give you a house, they make you rich. It is a myth that we are all rich. Yeah, that we are as human as everybody, and we also go through work to make money to be able to live. We are not there for people's children to recruit people's children. So the notion that once you meet these people, they are rich, so go and blackmail them, go and beat us, go and call us out because we are using money to indulge your children, it's a myth, it's a lie. If your child is not queer, nothing can endorse that child into queerness.

SPEAKER_06 14:24

Okay, and then I also want to say this queer people, our life is not all about sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Queer people, apart from our sexuality, we work. We are doctors, we have doctors, we have nurses, we have teachers. We are everywhere. In even in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Very diverse.

SPEAKER_06 14:44

We are everywhere. We are in the church, your pastor is queer, your imam is queer, your soft mommy is queer. So please, we are here to stay. Our sexuality is just a micro percentage of us. We are everything everyone can be.

SPEAKER_07 15:09

Um so to put the um cherry on the icing. I want also queer people of faith to also align with their faith. Do not give the opportunity to anybody to redefine how you should worship your God. Get closer to God because God is calling you. Know God for yourself, know God for yourself, have a relationship with God. You can be queer and be Christian, you can be queer and be Muslim, you can be queer and be anything. Remember, queerness is not written on your face. And so be free and as you are born free and be free.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

Today we've confronted some of the most common misconceptions about the queer community, shining a light on the truths that often get overshadowed by stereotypes and misinformation. It's through these conversations that we can foster greater understanding and acceptance. I hope this episode has helped you clear up some misunderstandings and offered a more accurate picture of queer realities. Remember, the truth is powerful, and together we can continue to challenge and change the narratives that don't reflect who we are. This initiative is brought to you by Capacity Ghana and Resilient Sisters Ghana. Until same time next time, keep questioning, keep learning, and keep standing in your truth. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

The crazy outrage that have been sparked against the LDBQ and notes.