The Muslim Professionals Association is urging President Akufo-Addo to endorse the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill (Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill), emphasising its comprehensive nature and alignment with Ghanaian perspectives.
Failure to enact the bill, according to the group, would constitute a violation of the rights of the majority of Ghanaians. They highlight potential scenarios where men, under the guise of transgender rights, might demand access to female washrooms, posing concerns for public safety and privacy.
“As Muslims, we shudder to think what will become of our mothers, wives, daughters and sisters if a heavily-bearded man insist, in the name of transgender rights, to use the female washroom in our mosques, markets, lorry stations and other public places. This will be an abuse of our rights too,” president of the Group, Dr. Abdul Samed Muntaka said in a statement issued on Friday.
The group also advocates for legal measures to curb the proliferation of LGBTQ+ issues in Ghanaian society, urging the President to sign the bill.
They say that the bill underwent an extensive process of consensus-building, involving input from economists, medical and legal professionals, sociologists, religious leaders, chiefs, and cultural figures. As a result, it is thorough and inclusive, capturing the perspectives of Ghanaians.
“More importantly, the bill provides for expert care, counseling and rehabilitation of LGBTQ people and criminalizes all extra-judicial attacks on persons known or suspected to belong to that group or found to be engaged in gay or lesbian practice. The Mosque and, we believe, the Church, are all ready to offer counseling support to those who sincerely wish to be helped out of the LGBTQ trap. We think this is more humane than the position of the LGBTQ rights advocates.”
Dr. Muntaka describes as an act of cruelty rather than compassion to encourage deviants to persist in defiance, despite the well-documented psycho-social, physical, and emotional distress associated with the LGBTQ lifestyle.
“More ominously, the normalization posture risks appealing to other unsuspecting people, including children, to adopt the clearly anti-social lifestyle.”
While applauding the passage of the bill, the Muslim Professionals Association raises serious reservations about efforts by certain groups to prevent the president from signing it into law. They cite warnings from the Ministry of Finance to the President, advising against assenting to the bill, purportedly due to concerns about potential losses in foreign aid and investment.
“We are disappointed with the position of the Ministry of Finance on the likely consequences of signing the bill into law. This posture is all the more unfortunate because it demonstrates a dependency syndrome from the institution that is supposed to provide solutions to our overdependence on foreign handouts. It betrays a lack of conviction on the part of the Ministry that the Ghana beyond Aid agenda is realistic and worth pursuing,” Dr Muntaka stated.
The Muslim Professionals Association is urging all 2024 presidential candidates to publicly express their support for the bill, commit to its enforcement upon enactment into law, or endorse it in the unlikely event that the current Administration fails to do so.