On Monday June 28, manager of FOKN Bois and CEO of Pidgen Music Panji Anoff, carried out a very interesting sociological experiment on his Facebook timeline. Panji ostensibly ‘came out’, announcing to the whole world that he is gay.

Panji’s post read “I wish to announce today that I am gay, so that all the people who don’t want a gay friend on facebook, can unfriend me now. I will miss you all, but I think it will make my facebook world a better place”

Panji later told Ghanaweb one of his expectations was to weed out false friends from his bloated friends list. He was expecting to lose at least 300-500 friends after the announcement, yet that did not happen.

This prompted him to say, “I thought the mode of discrimination levelled against gay practices would have helped me out and earn the same criticism but that’s not happening. With this feedback, those afraid to make public their sexuality, the impact isn’t as serious as it seems”

This is where I absolutely disagree with Panji, as I feel that is an erroneous conclusion to draw. He has close to 5000 friends yes, but how many of those are Ghanaians? And not disagreeing with something does not imply agreeing with it.

It was an interesting experiment, but it proves nothing about the mindset of Ghanaians towards those of same sex orientation. Just because 300-500 people did not bother to click unfriend on his profile does not in any way gauge the mood of the entire Ghanaian society.

And trust me; Ghana is a long way off from accepting homosexuality as a life choice. I’ve personally heard people talking about how it is a demonic possession, something spiritual and not of this realm. To these people no one in their right minds would sleep with someone of the same sex.

Ghana is as near a religious state as you can find anywhere without it being an official position. The constitution intends for a secular state, but we are a de-facto religious one. And in this opposition to gay rights you would find all the religions united in their stance, and that should be about 99% of the population.

Realistically, any public figure that ‘comes out’ is going to face ostracism such as they have never imagined. People would not only see them as possessed, but possibly mentally challenged as well as being viewed as beneath the ‘normal people’.

So long as religion has the hold it does over Ghanaians, gay rights would not be any close to acceptance. In any battle between faith and logic, the average person would go with what their faith tells them. Accepting that faith can be held independently of logical reasoning would be one huge step towards moving our thinking into the 21st century.