• There is a growing division amongst Ghanaians on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill before parliament
Read full article• A minority of Ghanaians including members of the LGBTQ+ community are calling for the abrogation of the bill
• Those against the bill say it goes contrary to the protection of human rights
Despite concerns of fundamental flaws being raised against the anti-LGBTQ+ bill currently before the parliament of Ghana, public support for the bill which seeks to criminalise same-sex marriage and related LGBTQ+ activities is growing by the day.
On the basis of procreation, religion, cultural values and norms, several Ghanaians who spoke to GhanaWeb on the controversial bill have argued in favour of it being passed into law.
Speaking to some Ghanaians at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra about the raging discussion around the bill, some justified their position against the practice of same-sex marriage citing religious beliefs.
“Those who practice gay do not believe there is a God. If they were to believe in the existence of God, they will know it is an abomination in the sight of God which attracts his wrath,” a man who spoke to GhanaWeb stated.
Others said despite the need to curb LGBTQ+ activities, the subject does not deserve the level of prominence it is being given as it leads the nation and its leadership to lose focus on pursuing more important matters bordering on development.
“They should not be tolerated at all. We are only making them popular by discussing them, these people are not accepted by our culture. We should just pass the bill on the low and get done with this matter,” a respondent said.
While expressing hope that the bill will be passed into law, some expressed disappointment in a group of accomplished Ghanaian professionals who raised certain concerns around the bill with calls for its abrogation.
Parliament is expected to discuss a Private Member's bill submitted by some eight MPs.
The 38-page bill before parliament, among other things, stipulates that, people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction, to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
The Bill targets persons who “hold out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”
The Bill also targets promoters and advocates of LGBTQ+ rights including “a person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill” as well as a person who “promotes, supports sympathy for or a change of public opinion towards an act prohibited under the Bill.”
As part of its provisions, the Bill outlines that a flouter can be sentenced to a jail term of not less than six years or not more than ten years imprisonment.
At the back of the public support the Bill has received, a group of academicians and other professionals have expressed their opposition to the bill.
According to the group of 18, the bill, ‘Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values’, when passed into law, would erode a raft of fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
Members of the group opposing the anti-gay bill include Mr Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh; a communications and media expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo.
The Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Professor Dzodzi Tsikata; the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, and a former Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Prof. Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, are also members of the group.
Others are Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, Dr Yao Graham, Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Dr Kojo Asante, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Mr Akunu Dake, Mr Tetteh Hormeku-Ajie, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Dr Joseph Asunka and Nana Ama Agyemang Asante.