Chairman of Advocates for Christ Ghana, Edem Senanu, has cautioned against opposing the passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 also known as the anti LGBTQI+ Bill.
His comments follow a warning from the Chairman of the Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee, Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, that the politicization of the bill could impact its passage
This threat emerged after progress on the bill stalled for months, fueling the frustration of its proponents. They had accused some Members of Parliament of colluding with pro-LGBTQ campaigners to delay its passage.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Friday, December 8, Mr Senanu explained that “it would be politically suicidal for any group to say we are not going to support this bill.”
According to him, the acrimony over the bill should be avoided.
He said the Anti-LGBTQ Bill has nothing to do with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the National Democratic Congress (NDC) but reflects the desires of the people of Ghana.
“Indeed, everybody knows that a good law is a law owned by the people, that is standard practice. Any piece of legislation that would pass the test of time must be a piece of legislation that emanates from the interest and aspiration of the people. So why would NPP or NDC either want to own it? … We are not interested in the partisanship,” he added.
According to him, Parliamentarians ought to “spend more time behind the scenes panning out the processes of how they are going to manage it [Bill].”
He noted that, as the election year is approaching and if the data “is anything to go by, the CDD-Ghana’s data 2019, 2021 says that 93 per cent of Ghanaians have a position on this matter which suggests that while we may be embracing these people [LGBT community], we are not accepting of their practices and we don’t want that to be something that we want in our country.”
He reminded the lawmakers to be mindful of their decision since their continuous stay in Parliament depends on their position on the issue.
“If they [Parliamentarians] are not aware, perhaps all of us need to remind them that we the people of Ghana have a certain position on this matter and it would be really dangerous for them … they may choose to make those comments but we are reminding them that there is a very strong position that Ghanaians hold on this matter,” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, Parliament has commenced work on the Bill.
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