The parliament of Ghana
Dear Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin,
First, I would like to introduce myself as a relative of Mrs. Rawlings, the wife of the late ex-President J.J. Rawlings.
I am by profession a consultant physician specialist, who lives and works in Germany. I have been following events in Ghana with great interest and as a member of the National Democratic Party, residing in Germany, I wish to apologise for the delay in sending you the Petition of the National Democratic Party rather late.
I have listened to the views of some members of the majority group in Parliament and I am afraid if certain notions are not corrected the whole exercise would have been in vain.
The LGBTQ+ issue is, as we shall see later on, a purely medical, psychological and biological issue and not a constitutional issue. Only from this point of view can this discussion be continued.
Please note: LGBTQ+ is a disorder of sexual preference. The definition of disorder in medical practice means a disruption of normal physical or mental function, e.g. a skin disorder. One sees therefore clearly that all the speakers are mistaken in their views. One cannot substitute a medical issue with a legal or constitutional one.
The mainly opposition speakers should realise however, that the human rights etiquette attached to the LGBTQ+ issue was a deliberate action to give any attacks against this behaviour as taking someone's rights from him. This is pure and simple a fallacy.
The aim of our party is primarily to give you important information about the nature of the LGBT as an entity. Before I proceed I would like to make certain recommendations and to offer you the opportunity to know from the point of view of medicine the real meaning of LGBT.
In other words, the information I want to give you is based on medical definition of this disorder without which the committee cannot make a fair assessment of what the petitioners intended to do.
The Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
Dear members of the Committee, dear readers, a group of archaic so-called academicians have collectively and simultaneously met to cook up a so-called petition to the Parliament of Ghana with the attempt to block the anti-LGBT bill presented to the parliament for deliberation.
The arguments of these academicians are full of words like
1. Constitution,
2. Fundamental human rights,
3. Gender and
4. Religion.
I maintain, however, it is strange that they argue that religious values should not form the basis of a law, even though they agree that human right values could also be the basis of a religious faith. This is a paradox.
We from the NDP are of the opinion that the anti-LGBT bill before the Special Committee in Parliament is nothing than a prohibition bill introduced purely to prevent the medically recognised so-called ICD-10 which is an example of disorder of sexual preference, e.g. exhibitionism.
Exhibitionism/sexual behaviour
The exhibitionists are those men or women who expose their genitals, usually to an unsuspecting stranger, while simultaneously sexually excited when doing so. There are lots of examples by previous Catholic priests dioceses who were accused of sexually exposing themselves to children.
For the sake of decency please forgive me if I do not give more examples of these serious disorders that lead to the sexual arousal of individuals and specific behavioural impulses.
For more information I wish to refer the committee or my readers to the “Handbook of Sexual Assault” pages 279 – 295. The authors are Vernon L. Quincy, Christopher M. Earls from the Dept. of Psychology, Queens University, Kingston, Canada.
The example I have given here is to show that disorder of sexual preferences is purely a
1. medical,
2. psychological and
3. biological issue
and not a gender or fornication or adultery problem, as claimed by the Group of 18.
Human Rights, Gender and Constitutional Assault
Dear members of the Committee, we are of the opinion that to understand the whole case it is important to know the meaning of the word gender.
1. Gender belongs to a class, usually masculine, feminine into which nouns and pronouns are placed in some languages, distinguished by a particular inflection. (Concise Oxford Dictionary)
2. The state of being a male or female, chiefly in cultural or social context. There is no mention of anything more than being male or female in our Constitution. There is nothing in our Constitution which indicates that LGBTQ+ is mentioned in our Constitution.
3. It is noteworthy that the Constitution lists a finite number of groups. This is undisputed by the Group of 18 by pushing a re-interpretation of the protected group “gender”.
Any re-interpretation of the Constitution though could not be within the realm of a Parliamentary Committee, but subject only to a decision of the Supreme Court.
It seems obvious that the writers of our Constitution made an informed decision to separate any sexual “orientation” or “preference” (i.e. reason for or object of sexual arousal and behavioural impulse) from a person's gender and decided to not include these sexual orientations and preferences.
Therefore the presentation by the Group of 18 using “gender” as an argument is fake and could at best be described as a deliberate attempt to mislead the Parliamentary Committee.
In conclusion therefore I wish to repeat what I said before that the whole issue of LGBTQ+ issue is a medical problem.
A copy of this letter I am sending you will be sent to the Attorney General in the Ministry of Justice of Ghana. No one is above the law and the Group of 18 is not above the law ,I therefore, appeal to the Committee to ask questions why they sought to mislead the Parliamentary body.
Foreign Interference
According to Vienna Convention Art. 41 foreign ambassadors and diplomats are forbidden to interfere in the affairs of the host nations. Therefore any attempt by an ambassador of any country in Ghana to interfere in the internal affairs of Ghana is illegal.
At the same time I would like to draw the attention of the Committee to statements made by an experienced lawyer in Ghana, who talks about threats to families and fornication to be rejected as total nonsense.
The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill
Sam Nartey George is the lead advocate for the said Anti-LGBTQ+ bill submitted by some 8 MPs.
The 38 page before Parliament among other things stipulates that
1. People of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse “are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not more three years and not more than five years or both.”
Targets
The bill targets persons who hold out as
a) lesbians,
b) a gay,
c) a transgender,
d) a transsexual,
e) a queer,
f) a pansexual,
g) an ally,
h) a non-binary,
i) or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.
Promoters and Advocates of
1. LGBTQ+ rights including a person who by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means produces procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes, or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the bill
2. or a person uses an electronic devices, the internet service, a film or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate publishes or distribute a material for the purposes of promoting an activities prohibited under the bill as well as a person also promotes, supports sympathy for a change of public opinion towards an act prohibited under the bill.
Who are the group of 18
1. The Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Prof.
Dzodzi Tsikata
2. The Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD
Ghana), Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh and former
3. Executive Director of CDD, Prof. Kofi-Gyima-Boadi
4. Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin
5. Dr. Yao Graham
6. Mr. Kwasi Adu Amankwah
7. Dr. Kojo Asante
8. Mr. Kingsley Ofous Nkansah
9. Mr. Akoto Dake
10. Mr. Teteh Hormeku-Aise
11. Dr. Charles Wireku Brobbey
12. Dr. Asunka
13. Nana Ama Agyeman Asante
14. Mr. Akoto Ampaw, author former Director of the UN Economic Commission for
Africa
15. Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manu a communications and media expert
16. Prof. Kwame Karikaus, the Dean of the University of Ghana, Legon School of
Law
17. Prof. Afuguba Raymond, the Dean of the Ghana School of Information and
Communication studies.
The Argument of the 18-Member Opposing Side
“Promotion of the Bill 'Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values', when passed into law would erode a raft of fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution”
What does the 1992 Constitution say about Human Rights
“Part I General, Chapter V,
12. (Protection of) Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms
(2) Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.”
The Constitution
There is so far no evidence of “gender” as a living person residing in Ghana has had his or her fundamental human rights abused.
The Attorney General Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame
So long as information about LGBTQ+, what it is, what they, their rights and what that entails is scanty, the State Attorney General of Ghana cannot make any meaningful contribution about this issue.
What activities of LGBTQ+ are being discussed ?
We are talking about
a) disorders of sexual preferences or paraphilias – a review
b) disorders of sexual preferences and medicolegal issues thereof
c) F64 gender identities disorder (ICD10 Version 2016)
The Group of 18 have no idea of position a, b and c.
Psychosexual Disorders
The Kinsey-Report showed that almost 5% of all people have homosexual tendencies.
The most Western countries have for their own reasons made laws which make homosexual activities legal, but that does not translate those culture which make laws to outlaw the behaviour as taking someone's human rights away.
The right to have sexual relationship with same sex has been classified in medicine as a disorder according to ICD 10, that is a disorder. When an individual is sexually aroused by inappropriate stimuli. This inappropriate stimuli is the disorder and not a right.
The LGBTQ+ Disorder
The behaviour of LGBTQ+ is and will forever in many parts of the world classified as a disorder of sexual preference whether some European Nations want it or not.
Our morals are not and have never been compatible to what the EU considers right. These Nations have time and time shown exclusively that it is their nature to dominate others. That's it ! Domination is their nature.
Where was Anglican Church when African footballers were being booed as monkeys. What was and is their stand ?
What was their reaction when George Floyd's human rights was totally abused and his life taken away from him? Shame on them.
The Anglican Church up until today has not paid reparations for enslaving our people.
Our people are suffering in the following far away countries:
1. USA: 40 million of our brethren, they are being killed like animals on a daily basis.
2. As I write, their right to vote in 21st century is about to be taken away
from them. They are disenfranchised black men.
3. What has the EU Union done or said about this.
4. They have not told us so far what rights would be lost if the bill is passed
and how ?
5. The article 41 of the Vienna Convention has been abused by Western countries'
ambassadors in Ghana, thus abusing the basic human rights of Ghanaians.
The modification of inappropriate sexual preferences is of central concern in many treatment programs. Here the United Nations has shown its hypocrisy and its bias against black people.
The Treatment of LGBTQ+ is not a human rights necessity
The modification of inappropriate sexual preferences is of central concern in many treatment programs for sex offenders. (Abel, Becker, Cunningham-Ratner, Roulean Kaplan & Reich, 1984 u.a.)
The focus (they write) on inappropriate sexual interest follows from repeated observations that sex offenders such as child molesters, rapists and sadists, frequently report ruminating over sexual fantasies involving the types of behaviours in which they engage moreover , the relative amount of sexual arousal elicited by deviant and non-deviant cues in phallometric assessment more consistently differentiates sex offenders from other males than any other measures yet tried (see Earls & Quincy, 1984 and 1986 for reviews)
The question for the United Nations, the Anglican Bishops, what do we do for the sex offenders in your country. Women, boys and men are being killed on daily basis.
The Clinical Importance of Inappropriate Sexual Preferences
The clinical importance of inappropriate sexual preferences is reflected in the definition of sexual deviations or paraphilias in DSM-III-R as disorders characterised by
1. intense sexual drive or urges or sexual arousing fantasies involving
inappropriate objects or
2. coercive sexual activities (American Psychiatric Association, 1987)
Disorders of Sexual Preferences
Disorders of sexual preferences (the term used in DSM IV) are disorders in which an individual is sexually aroused by inappropriate stimuli.
Other terms used are
1. sexual deviation and
2. perversion.
Should and can a perverse person's activities be described as legitimate human rights behaviour ?
Does rejection and sometimes punishing a sexual perversion constitute abuse of human rights ?
If so, please how ?
Homosexuality was previously included but through lobbying by people like Elton John it is no longer the case. Why homosexuality was banned and people who indulged in such activities were jailed is not clear.
Countries which reject LGBTQ+ are
1. Russia
2. China
3. Poland
4. Hungary
5. Nigeria
6. Saudi Arabia
7. Quatar
and many many more.
Why do embassies in Ghana break the Vienna Convention Art. 41 to deny Ghanaian citizens visas to visit their countries. This is racism. Ghanaian laws are paramount to any foreign laws.
Examples of Disorders of Sexual Preferences
1. Fetishism, sexually arousing object, e.g. clothing, shoes and rubber or a
woman's bra
2. Exhibitionism, example exposure of genitals
3. Fetishistic transvestic fetishism, crossdressing, complete outfit with wig
4. Pedophilia, sexual abuse of children
Sex Offenders
Does the Archbishop of Canterbury know that there are sex offenders among the LGBTQ+ group ?
Should a sex-offender have a treatment programme?
If they do, are we going to qualify the humane corrective treatment as human rights abuse ?
Refer Literature:
1. Abel, Becker, Cunningham-Rathner
2. Rouleau, Kaplan & Reich
3. 1984 Borzeki & Wormth
Have the 18 Ghanaians who sent a Petition to the Parliament requesting the rejection to punish sex-offenders among others made even the effort to read about the issue they reject.
The issue of disorder of sexual preference is:
a) biological,
b) applied clinical psychological,
c) medical,
d) criminal issue.
I refer them, the group of 18, to read “Handbook of Sexual Assault” pages 279 to 296.
What the Group of 18 Ghanaians Say
The lawyer Akoto Ampaw, a private legal practitioner, a Ghanaian said or wrote in his petition to the Parliament. He is against the anti LGBTQ+ bill because, according to him, people's fundamental human rights will be abused.
Please note this man talks of people in general but not specifically the LGBTQ+ people. Fair enough, but he is not known to have previously have campaigned in similar manner about cases of human rights abuses in Ghana and for that matter in the wide world.
Examples:
1. 60 people are reported dead in South Western Niger after attack on villagers in Niger. They were supposed to have been killed by ISIS. The President of Niger declared 2 days of mourning for the dead. Niger is in ECOWAS. We heard nothing from the group of 18 about the human rights abuse of the victims.
People who commit suicide have mental disorders, but most homosexuals suffer from something called “arouse”, meaning a compulsive urge to act.
If there are remedies and they refuse to be helped medically, that results in willful intent and must be punished.
I therefore support the bill to be passed.
2. Where was the Archbishop of Canterbury when African Americans were being used as guinea pigs for syphilis and other diseases ?
Where was the Anglican Church, the UN and the whole world when black Americans are being killed on a daily basis because of the colour of their skin ?
It could have been you.
Where was the Anglican Church when talented black football players are being booed and called monkeys in all European nations ?
GhanaWeb Road Safety recorded 5,476 road accidents with many people killed.
Why did the group of 18 misleading entities in this country did not ask for at least for humanitarian reasons ask for a memorial service for the dead ?
62 citizens of Niger were killed by terrorists in Niger, the country ordered 2 days of mourning; in Ghana, none. The lives of Ghanaians are cheap ?
The writer of this article happens to be the brother-in-law of the late ex-President Rawlings. I am a consultant physician specialist, resident and practising in Germany.
I maintain that the people of Ghana like Europeans have values and this should be respected by Europeans. The LGBTQ+ is a medical, biological and psychological problem. These people need help.
Defiling children and others remains a crime if the facilities for recovery are not accepted.
Questions to be answered by the members of Parliament
1. Do they know what LGBTQ+ is ?
2. Do the 18 Petitioners know what LGBTQ+ is ?
3. Can anyone make a decision on any topic they know little about ?
4. Whether someone’s human rights have been abused or not depends on what
specific right one is talking about.
5. The idea that the 1992 Constitution might have something to do with the
behaviour or not is a fallacy.
To answer the question about the relevance of the Constitution here, I have in short presented the Members of Parliament with what LGBTQ+ medically and biologically is !
We all can make a judgement on a topic if and only if we know what the issue is.
Dr. Edward K. Poku
NDP Ghana, German Branch