Cast your mind back to some few years. Imagine how being a homosexual during that period felt like. The same cannot be said about today. Many do not consider engaging in a homosexual act to be evil anymore. It is now being considered as a natural phenomenon.
Whilst I was facebooking about two months ago, I came across a post by an 18 year old friend of mine. She was publicly declaring through that post that she was a lesbian.
I had observed that trait earlier in her based on certain actions of hers so I remember asking her sometime back even before she came out with that post if she was a lesbian. Her answer was “no.”
In response to a comment by a fellow friend of hers that he never knew she was a lesbian, she replied by stating that she was young and afraid to voice it out in the past.
What has basically changed from time past, that people can now declare publicly that they are homosexuals without any fear?
In Communications, there exists a theory known as “Spiral of Silence.” The phrase “spiral of silence” actually refers to how people tend to remain silent when they feel that their views are in the minority.
The theory posits that they remain silent for a few reasons. First of all, such ones do so because they fear isolation when they have a divergent opinion from the status quo.
Secondly, those whose view are in the minority fear reprisal or more extreme isolation, in the sense that voicing said opinion might lead to a negative consequence beyond that of mere isolation, example loss of a job, reputation, etc.
You would bear with me that, majority of people never wanted to associate with homosexuals, be it friendship, business etc. In the United States of America for example, homosexuals were not allowed to join the military.
The closer an individual feels their opinion resides with majority opinion, the more likely they will be willing to voice it in public discourse. People in the minority start to express their opinions publicly without fear when people who are highly educated, or who have greater affluence, and a few other individuals who do not fear isolation but think they are ahead of time speak out regardless of public opinion, which result in the rest following that course.
One of the most influential and educated people in this world is U.K’s Prime Minister, David Cameron. He publicly declared his support for same sex marriage. Not only him, lots of influential people like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, just to mention a few are all people who have affirm their support for same sex relationships. Don’t also forget about the numerous human rights activists who have emerged and fighting for the rights of homosexuals.
With all these influential people rallying their support solidly for homosexuality, homosexuals in the minority who once kept silent due to the fear of isolation now express themselves publicly without any fear again.
This could be seen clearly in countries where same sex marriage is legal. The number of people who open up publicly and accept they being homosexuals in countries that have legalised it always outweigh those in countries that don’t support it.
Should Ghana approve same sex marriage right now, there is going to be an increase in the number of people who will come out publicly to announce they are homosexuals.
The more those in the minority gain stands, the more they become vocal. This explains why homosexuals are somehow vocal presently as opposed to the past.
Akosua Ghana and Stacy can u set the ball rolling. I do like to know ur take on this?
I personally think there should be no law when it comes to peoples sexual preferences . I don’t think legalizing same sex marriage is copying blindly what happening in other countries . Nuff said