Ghana’s family life cannot sustain same-sex marriages- Opuni-Frimpong

The Reverend Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) says Ghana’s culture and family life at the moment cannot sustain same-sex marriage.

He said culture and family, play significant roles in contracting marriages in all Ghanaian societies and therefore same-sex marriage which basically had to do with individual preferences and rights could not be accepted and sustained.

Speaking to the GNA in an interview in Accra on Wednesday, Rev Opuni-Frimpong explained that, “for Ghanaians, marriage is the backbone of the family, and family is very important for socialising of children and young people”.

He said family and children provide social security for parents, especially in their old age and that was why a married man and his wife who have difficulty in giving birth to their own children “see it as a big issue, with pressures mounting on them from in-laws and society in general”

“This is why for us in Ghana, same-sex marriage is not just a simple human right issue but has a lot to do with our very human existence”, Rev Opuni-Frimpong explained.

“It is not like-this is me, this is my right, leave me alone. For us marriage is not an individual issue that an individual can say, this is my life, so leave me alone. For us marriage becomes the totality of our beings and therefore it is an issue for the entire family but not an individual,” he noted.

The Reverend said elsewhere in the Western world, systems like homes and welfare packages existed for the aged, especially those who do not have children to take care of and so such aged people are sent to the homes for the state to take care of them.

However, in Ghana, there were no such systems to support the aged and parents, and so their children become social security for them.

Therefore, same-sex marriage which promotes man to man and woman to woman marriages could not produce children who would in turn take care of such parents in their old age, Rev Opuni explained.

He has therefore commended the Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Professor Aaron Michael Ocquaye for refusing to accept homosexuality as part of the Ghanaian culture.

Rt Rev Ocquaye in a recent meeting with the leadership of the clergy in Accra said Ghana would in no way succumb to the liberalisation of the world by accepting homosexuality as part of its culture.

He said same-sex marriage was an abomination since the culture and religion of the Ghanaian setup frowned on it.

The Speaker said Parliament would strengthen its laws against homosexuality.

The Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu expressed his support for the pronouncement of the Speaker on homosexuality, saying, “I am encouraged today that if the world is in doubt about Ghana’s stance on homosexuality, the Speaker has said it all that same-sex marriage is an abomination to God”.

Rev Opuni-Frimpong is therefore calling on all Ghanaians to come together to protect the sanctity of marriage by opposing same-sex marriages.

“For us issues of human rights should be about bread and butter issues, housing, water, flooding, health, among others and not homosexuality,” he said.