Deliberations on Anti-LGBTQ bill may extend into 2022 – Sam George

• Parliament resumed sitting on Tuesday

• The house among other things will be discussing the anti-LGBTQ+ bill

• Sam George admits deliberations on the bill may take a long time

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, has served notice that the anti-LGBTQ+ currently before the legislative house may go for the long haul before being passed into law.

Despite expressing optimism about the eventual passage of the bill into law, Sam George who is the lead sponsor of the draft bill has said he will not be surprised if parliament’s deliberation on the bill travels into next year.

“It is not a matter of days. It is a matter of weeks and months,” he told Accra-based Citi FM on Tuesday.

The eighth parliament of Ghana resumed sitting on Tuesday after going on a break.

The House is expected to conduct business until December 17, when it will break again.

Meanwhile, the House over the period will be working on some 58 bills which include three private member bills.

Amongst the private members bill is the anti-LGBTQ+ bill dubbed the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.

The bill which seeks to criminalise same-sex marriage and other related activities in the country has so far seen over a hundred memoranda submitted to parliament.

Given the public interest and the enormous number of memoranda received, Sam George notes that “given the thorough nature of the work we want them to do, I think it will be unfair to expect that we can complete this before the House rises.”