How would MPs handle gay colleagues? - AIDS Commission boss asks

• The bill has been referred to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee

• The AIDS Commission boss wants the bill to be reviewed

The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Kyeremeh Atuahene, has wondered how parliament will “handle” some members of the house who are homosexuals.

Mr. Atuahene in an interview on Asaase Breakfast Show said while he does not “want to believe that there are no men who have sex with men in parliament”, he is puzzled over the treatment MPs would give to colleagues who are gays.

“How are they going to handle their own? Are they going to expose them and give them to the police or they will not associate with them?” Mr. Atuahene asked.

“Because if you associate with them, you are an ally… and our advice to parliament is that we know the law will not be carried out in its current state,”he is quoted to have said by asaaseradio.com.

A team of 8 MPs led by Samuel Nartey George have jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalization of LGBTQI+ activities in the country. The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.

Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, has subsequently referred the Bill to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee for consideration.

In his submission, Mr. Atuahene opined that the anti-gay bill draft before parliament should be reviewed before passage into law.

He explained that the bill, if passed in its current state, will not help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the gay community.

“We have worked with them (LGBTQI) since 2014. We have never promoted any of their activities or done anything to suggest any of the things that the draft bill seeks to prescribe...But the challenge is the long arm of this bill and the widespread tentacles. First, it will drive them underground and when it drives them underground, it means they will not access the services and that is a major concern for us,” Mr Atuahene bemoaned.

So far, 18 prominent people have rejected the proposed anti-gay bill in parliament. In their view, the bill violates almost all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the constitution.

Right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble, freedom of association and the right to organise, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity are what is denied the LQBTQI+ community, they have argued.