About 15,000 Ghanaians have signed a memorandum to Parliament for the passage of the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill (Anti-LGBTQI+ bill).
Some Christian leaders submitted the memorandum to Parliament’s Committee for Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, President of the Apostolic Church, Ghana, Apostle Dr Aaron Ami-Narh, were part of the delegation.
This comes barely 48 hours after some 15 professionals from various fields including medicine, law, and academia submitted a memorandum to the same committee, kicking against the bill.
To them, the proponents of the bill have not provided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort to some dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values, hence want the bill rejected.
In the view of these 15 individuals, the bill is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity”, adding that railroading the bill through would mean challenging Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
But Apostle Eric Nyamekye, during the presentation, said their support for the bill is due to the belief that LGBTQI+ “is something against our Christ and against our God.”
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“They [LGBTQ+ advocates] are saying that God is not intelligent and that he should have given other options. God is a sovereign God, and we want to stand completely for what we believe,” he stated.
The private members’ bill, which is in the pipeline is proposing a 10-year jail term for offenders, including promoters of any sexuality that falls within the LGBTQI+ spectrum other than between a man and a woman.
The legislators promoting the bill, on June 29, 2021, submitted a copy of the draft to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.
It among other things says 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 less than three years and not more than five years or both.”