Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has stated that he would rather die than see the legalisation 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.”
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, often known as the Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill, is not wholly unlawful, but it poses implementation issues if enacted by Parliament.
The bill, which is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs, aims to protect human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values while outlawing the activities of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, and queers in Ghana. If the law is enacted, a person found guilty might face up to ten years in jail.
“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 announced this during a press reception in Tamale as part of the Parliament of Ghana’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, which was themed “Thirty(30) Years of Parliamentary Democracy Under the Fourth Republic; The Journey Thus Far.”
Meanwhile, UN human rights experts have urged Ghana’s government to reject a proposed anti-gay measure, claiming that it would establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a UN office statement, the bill’s consideration by a country recognised as a champion of democracy in Africa, with an exceptional record of meeting specific Millennium Development Goals by 2015, is highly concerning.
