I can't stand to see my mates bathing - Confused SHS fresher writes
YEN.com.gh tells the story of a confused Form One SHS boy who narrates how he continues to battle with this strange attraction to his male colleagues at boarding school. He is considering becoming a day student.
Click here for the latest stories in Ghana
Free SHS is here with us at last giving the opportunity to thousands of students further their education in the various senior high schools.
But speaking of the boarding house, there continue to be revealing stories of scandals that could make us want to wonder where the future of our dear brothers and sisters are headed.
This is a serious account by a first-year student at one of the boys’ schools at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
For the purposes of anonymity and security, we decided to call him Kofi Jones. Upon reading some of the readers mail on YEN, Kofi, who is currently home due to a short illness decided to write about the challenges he is being faced with as a fresher at school.
His main challenge is that he always gets hard whenever he enters the bathroom and sees his friends bathing. According to him, he never wants to call himself gay but this “strange attraction to the same boys” got him wondering if indeed he could be gay.
“Anytime I join my friends to bath I always feel funny. There is this strange feeling I have for them. I don’t know what’s happening and I have decided to handle it but still.” He revealed.
Kofi reveals that he has sought counselling both at school and Church but things just don’t seem to be working right for him. His new strategy, according to him, is to now see all his friends as family members.
“ For some time now I decided to see these mates of mine as my elder brothers at home and I think it helps to some extent. I f it doesn’t I just decide not to bath in their company at all,” he resolved.
Kofi says he has the dream of being a neurologist in future but and that studying Science in school gives him the urge to push further.
“I always tell myself that this feeling will go one day. I know I need help but here in Ghana people will just criticize so I have decided to stay silent,” he revealed.
According to Kofi, he is considering becoming a day student so that he could wean himself from such attractions.
Homosexuality is rife among students across the various single-sexed schools in Ghana with reports of defilement always surfacing in the media. Even though some school provide counselling to such group of persons, others just find it a glorious relief to just sack them – a situation that deepens the state of homophobia in Ghana today.
Homosexuality continues to be frowned upon on Ghana with parliament currently finding ways of totally making it a criminal act. Meanwhile, a group of Ghanaian gay men are said to be scouting for petitions in Canada so as to get authorities respect the rights of the LGBT community.
But for someone like Kofi, his battles are only his to fight since he feels he unsafe even discussing issues of his sexuality with friends and family.
Do you have any advice for Kofi? Drop them in the comments section below.
YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident?
Want to tell about a local problem?
Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are welcome!
Source: YEN.com.gh
