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The muffled national conversation on gays has claimed its first victim. Interestingly, the victim fell during his first major official assignment as Information and Media Relations Minister when he sought to parry the negative repercussions of the President�s alleged association with gay activist Andrew Solomon. It was not an infantryman falling on the battlefield in a firefight but a politician getting entrapped in the pantomime of the gay conversation in a country awash with propaganda. If John Jinapor, the President�s spokesperson, survived the initial firefight being waged by the media and the willing clergy against our seeming newfound love with gayness, Hon Hassan Ayariga did not. The finesse required in dealing with such a delicate subject in a gay-unfriendly country was lost on Mr Ayariga whose additional job schedule of managing media relations demanded more from him than he delivered when he addressed the media. If the conference was intended to douse the fire, it did the reverse, exposing what is an uncoordinated response to an image challenge. John Jinapor�s explanation that he was yet to be briefed by his boss on the raging fire, Andrew Solomon popping up at the book launch, was ample proof that he was not primed to field questions on the issue. Our politicians, those in power, appear to be toying with the intelligence of their compatriots in the manner they relate to them; otherwise Mahama Ayariga would not have conducted himself the way he did on that fateful day. The handling of the relationship between the President and the gay rights activist has been largely mismanaged as a result of an inordinate obsession to propagandise the issue even when the appetite of Ghanaians to learn the truth had been titillated. Even when it was glaring that the media would have a go at the Presidency to come clear about the links between the President and the gay rights activist, adequate preparation had not been made to contain the approaching encounter. Be that as it may, the impression we are getting is that the presidency would abide by the �business as usual� mantra, the import of which is that propaganda would be the cornerstone of the communications between the corridors of power and the people. Sincerity should give way to propaganda at times, like now. These are worrying times; we cannot ignore the anomalous developments in the name of isolating government from embarrassments when indeed such situations are prompted by the actions and inactions of state players. Let the Ayarigas and others respect the people of this country by being sincere and honest with them even when a powerful gay activist hosts a Ghanaian author at his Manhattan residence.