For fear of losing my career, I denied being gay - Former journalist
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| Ignatius Annor |
Former Metro TV journalist Ignatius Annor, for the first time after so many years, admitted to being gay.
He denied being gay because of the fear of losing his journalism career, the current Euro News journalist said.
Speaking to Joy News, PM Express said, "I denied that I was gay in the past." Owing to the fear of losing my job, I did that.
"At that time, for a number of years, I practiced broadcast journalism in Ghana and being on TV and being ousted brought a lot of pain to my life."
Ignatius Annor, who said he was an active gay rights activist, said he returned to Ghana looking for employment after studying for his Masters in the UK, but none of the media houses were willing to hire him "just because of the stigma surrounding my community."
"This is going to be the first time, using your medium, to say that not only am I an African Sexual Minority rights activist [LGBTQ+], but I'm gay; it's the truth I've accepted, it's the truth I'm going to live by," stressed the former Metro TV journalist.
He added, "because I was ousted as a gay person, and obviously, because I was afraid of losing my job, and also because I was afraid of what would happen to me personally..."
Ignatius Annor also stated that it is not okay for anyone to admit that he is gay and walks freely in Ghana or has access to "dehumanizing and terrible" jobs or other social amenities.
He further explained that people belonging to the group of African Sexual Minorities want to live in the country as no other heterosexual individuals live without any stigma.
"I want the people of Ghana to have an honest conversation about the people who live in your family, the people who are your brothers and sisters, and to see that they are human beings who deserve the very life that you have and... to be free and to do their normal business."
When asked how his family feels about his admission to being gay, Ignatius Annor said that he had the burning desire to tell his family that he was gay when he came back from the UK to Ghana in 2017, but he thought about talking to his mom first because "she is my only surviving parent."
“She looked me in the eye and said to me just because, according to her, at the time that she was listening to a preacher on the radio talking about how demonic it is to be a man and have love for your fellow man or be a woman and have love for your fellow woman and so, she was going to pray to cast out that demon away from me,” he narrated.
He added that it was very painful to hear that from his mom, but he understood where she was coming from.
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