I will fight anti-gay bill with my last blood – Board Member of LGBTQ+ Right Ghana

Board member of the LGBTQ+ Rights Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, has said that she will use every energy she has to fight the anti-gay bill proposed by the Parliament of Ghana.

Earlier this year, the Speaker of Parliament received a private member bill from some MPs that seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities.

But Va-Bene describes the bill as hateful and has added that all those who argue in favour of the bill do so without substance.

Speaking on how she is likely to react if this bill is passed into law, she shared with Sefa Danquah on the Happy Morning Show: “I don’t know what I will do yet but that is never going to change my position on this bill and that will not change my sexuality and gender. Therefore, I will have to fight until the last blood drops.”

On 29 June 2021, some legislators presented a copy of the draft of the Bill to the Speaker of Parliament. This bill is seeking to expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.

The new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding and act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.

Meanwhile, fifteen renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament.

In the memorandum, they contend that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities, is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”

Some Christian leaders, on the other hand, have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, endorsing the bill.