LGBTQI+ brouhaha: National interest must come first – Educationist

Educationist, Mr. Daniel Fenyi, has called on Ghanaians to take into consideration national interest when having discussions on the Anti – LGBTQI+ bill before Parliament.

The follows the submission of a counter-proposal of the bill to parliament by a group of 18 Ghanaian academics citing that it would infringe on the fundamental human rights of persons who engage in LGBTQI+ activities.

Speaking to UniversNews, Mr. Daniel Fenyi stated that academics must be guided by the culture, values, and beliefs systems of the country and desist from misleading the public on such sensitive national issues.

“In recent times, the issue of LGBTQI+ has been dominating the public space with persons for and against the passage of the Anti-LGBTQI+ draft bill before Parliament. We must all be guided by the values and time-tested traditions that have held us together as a country and given us a unique national identity and as such we must let the overall interest of the country supersede all other competing interests in this situation. Persons in academia must not be seen to be misinforming or misleading the public on such sensitive issues when it is common knowledge that rights of this nature are non-existent in our laws".

"These academics must note that they wield huge influence in the country and have millions of youth looking up to them as role models and as such their behaviours and actions on the issue is likely to leave doubts in the mind of the public about the authenticity of their acquired knowledge and as such they must be aware of the consequences of endorsing such acts”.

Also, Mr. Fenyi indicated that the Comprehensive Sexual Education Programme which was introduced in the school curriculum must be reintroduced to establish a unique national character on such issues.

“I believe that in light of the conversations on the subject matter, it is important and necessary to bring the Comprehensive Sexuality Education document back into our school Curriculum to teach and properly educate our students on the appropriate ways of approaching human sexual rights and how the law speaks on such activities between both sexes and their relations with one another”.

Subsequently, Mr. Fenyi added that the reintroduction of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education model must be silent on LGBTQI+ and only create room for discussions in schools when the issue of further information and clarification on the subject matter arises.

“The CSE model in its reintroduction must be designed to be silent on LGBTQI+ and its related activities in the Curriculum but in cases of further explanation on the subject matter in schools by students, there can be a mechanism for the teacher or instructor to throw light on it to give proper understanding to all stakeholders.

"The outlawing of the act must not accrue rights to any individual to attack those involved in it but it would be left to the security agencies to deal with the offenders," Fenyi noted.