The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 went through its first reading in Parliament on Monday 2nd August 2021.
The object of the Bill, which has come to be known as the ‘Anti-gay Bill’ seeks to provide for proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values; provide for the protection of and support for children, persons who are victims or accused of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities and other persons among others.
The Bill is also to proscribe LGBTQ+ and related activities and to proscribe propaganda of, advocacy for or promotion of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities.
The drafting and laying of the Bill in Parliament follow media reports of the opening of an LGBTQ+ advocacy resource centre in Accra with some delegates from the European Union the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana and the Danish Ambassador to Ghana in attendance.
The European Union, on its official Facebook page, subsequently advertised participation in the event and reiterated its support for all civil society organisations supporting LGBTQI+ groups.
The news was greeted with serious criticism from a cross-section of Ghanaians, with several persons including the National House of Chiefs, the National Chief Imam, the Christian Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values calling for the resource centre to be shut down and persons involved in the opening of the centre, arrested and prosecuted.
The episode brought about a renewed national debate on the activities of LGBTQ+ persons in Ghana, with calls for such activities to be punished as they do not accord with the socio-cultural values of any ethnic group in Ghana.
The National House of Chiefs later issued a statement and described LGBTQ+ as taboo, inhuman and alien to the Ghanaian society and stressed the symbolism of sex and marriage is between man and woman.
“As as such, the idea of a man marrying a man and woman marrying a woman is an abomination to our tradition and culture as Ghanaians,” the statement said.
Sponsors of the Bill led by MP for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George argued that Act 29, which was promulgated about sixty years ago when the subject of LGBTTQQIAAP+ in Ghana was far-fetched.
According to them, Section 104 of Act 29, which is the most proximate reference to LGBTTQQIAAP+ only prohibits “unnatural carnal knowledge.
They argued that the time is ripe for Parliament to actualise the intentions of the framers of the Constitution by providing a legal framework for the promotion of the values that define Ghana’s nationhood.
The MPs against LGBQ+ worked in collaboration with the various Christian groups, Muslim groups, chiefs and organizations against LGBTQ+ to draft the bill.
The Draft Bill was later presented to the Speaker of Parliament, Rtd Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin and as pledged, it has gone through the first reading with the expectation it will soon become law.
2nd Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah, who presided over the sitting referred the Bill to the Committee for Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to work on and present its report.
Source: MyPublisher24.com