The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has indicated that he prefers to die than to see the legalization of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) activities in Ghana.
“For you all to participate in it count me out of Ghana because I will prefer to join my maker than to live. That is me I am a Catholic and I will not do anything that will end the world because God says the world is eternal until he comes back we cannot do that to end the world.”
Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, popularly referred to as the Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill is not entirely unconstitutional but faces challenges of implementation if the bill is passed by Parliament.
The bill, which is currently under review by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs, seeks to provide for human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values while seeking to prohibit the activities of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and queers in Ghana. A person found guilty could face up to 10 years imprisonment if the bill is passed.
“The Bill recognises our family values, it accepts what we call normal and not abnormal and it protects those who by nature or whatever are caught and so we will pass the legislation that we believe will not offend the position of the 1992 Constitution.”
The Speaker of Parliament made this known during a press soirée in Tamale as part of Parliament of Ghana’s 30th Anniversary Celebration on the theme: “Thirty(30) years of Parliamentary Democracy Under the Fourth Republic; The Journey thus far.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights experts have called on the government of Ghana to reject a proposed anti-gay bill, saying the bill seeks to establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
A statement from the UN office said the consideration of the bill by a country that is regarded as a champion of democracy in Africa, with an impressive record of achieving certain Millennium Development Goals by 2015, is quite worrying.